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Retail Marketing

Reshaping the retail catalogue

Papirfly
6 minutes read

As the world of retail becomes more and more digital, there doesn’t seem to be much room for the humble retail catalogue anymore. The far-flung days of flicking through Argos’ laminated book of wonders, or browsing the latest fashions on offer from Sears, feel like a lifetime ago.

Indeed, as online shopping’s grip on modern consumers continues to tighten, in recent years major brands, notably Argos, IKEA and H&M have shut down their magazine budgets and hopped aboard the eCommerce express. And there’s a lot of data backing this decision.

So, is it time to officially lay the retail catalogue to rest? Absolutely not. We have previously discussed how print still has a powerful role in retail, and the catalogue is a prime example. 

The tactile experience of flipping through page after page is something that is hard to replicate online, and helps brands engage customers in a way they can’t digitally. Where some brands like IKEA have moved away from catalogues, others have successfully doubled down.

Below, we explore why catalogues remain go-to collateral for numerous retailers, and the steps you can take to maximise the effectiveness of these assets moving forward.

The enduring relevance of retail catalogues

The retail catalogue has been with us since the 19th century and Tiffany’s Blue Book, enabling customers to browse a retailer’s range without having to step into a store. 

But, with the potential to contain all of this information – and much more – on the Internet, there are many who feel this novelty has worn off. Not to mention the potential problems caused by catalogues:

  • Once printed, they can’t be updated in real-time, meaning they can go out-of-date quickly
  • They can cost a substantial amount to write, design and print, depending on the catalogue’s reach
  • The environmental impact of printing catalogues can be heavy

However, flaws aside, there are many reasons why brands continue to rely on retail catalogues.

Physical and psychological sensation

Modern consumers are enticed by experiences, rather than cluttered inboxes of ads and sales pitches. While we wait for VR and AR technology to mature, the simple process of reading through a catalogue, touching and feeling what’s in front of you, can be a powerful pull for consumers.

Rather than be separated by a digital screen, customers play an active role in transitioning from one page to the next. For example, if you’re picking out furniture for a room, trying to drag your computer or laptop into the room to visualise the product in situ may not be feasible.

This helps you see yourself enjoying the products on offer at a deeper level. These experiences are more memorable, and therefore more likely to stay with customers.

Standing out in a digital landscape

While we can all appreciate the convenience and connectivity that the digitisation of retail has delivered, this online noise can become quite overwhelming. We can be left exhausted by streams of emails and social posts on a daily basis, with the opportunity to flick through a physical catalogue a welcome escape for many.

So, although the rise of eCommerce will continue, being able to move beyond the abundance of online content can help retailers stand out among their customers.

Appealing to particular demographics

For those actively shopping in the decades before digital took over, retail catalogues are as familiar as a childhood home. The power of nostalgia should never be underestimated, and it can help transport consumers to a simpler time in their lives. This is a feeling more and more people are craving, and catalogues can allow retailers to harness it to their benefit.

Yet, it is not only people with fond memories of browsing catalogues that can feel this pull. Millennials and Gen Z,who have grown up with digital as the norm, can also grow attached to retail catalogues, either as a brand new experience, or as an appreciation for something “retro”.

Holds customers’ attention

Compare the above asset to the number of digital ads or sales emails that are immediately closed or overlooked by people online each day. Customers feel compelled to read through a catalogue – it is a more personal, engaging experience. As such, this increases the amount of time a customer engages with a brand and their products.

Unlocks opportunities for omnichannel marketing

Finally, as more retailers seek to create seamless transitions between the physical and digital for their customers, catalogues offer a great way to achieve this.

By incorporating QR codes, social media tie-ins and other ways to link catalogues to the online world, modern retailers are providing the omnichannel experience that today’s customers crave, helping everyone enjoy the best of both worlds.

How 3 brands are still harnessing retail catalogues

C&A

C&A has embraced the blending of print and digital in their catalogues, delivering personalised magazines to customers linked to their individual Facebook account. This meant that, as people browsed their catalogue, they could hit a like button beneath a product, and this would account for an actual like on a corresponding Facebook advert.

While this was a fun quirk for customers, it also gave C&A invaluable digital data on products that were most popular with their audience.

Brookstone

Gadget and gifts retailer Brookstone has actively used QR codes within their catalogues to empower their readers to seamlessly transition into their digital world. With each code, customers can access more information and imagery on a desired product, as well as customer reviews to help reinforce their purchasing decision.

Condé Nast

As the home to some of the most popular magazines worldwide, including Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair, Condé Nast’s analytics program within their digital catalogues offer crucial insights, such as:

  • How often catalogues are viewed
  • The number of visits received
  • The time of day catalogues were accessed
  • Which products were viewed and purchased online

What can you do to unlock your retail catalogues’ potential?

Embrace omnichannel

As the examples highlighted above demonstrate, retail catalogues offer an excellent opportunity to cross streams between the physical and digital.

Whether it is akin to Brookstone’s inclusion of QR codes to allow readers to immediately locate and purchase items online, or C&A’s clever Facebook integration, catalogues allow brands to prolong the journey their customers take with them.

This both ties in with the unstoppable rise of eCommerce, while giving customers escapism from the digital realm through a physical magazine.

Lock down data accuracy

One of the biggest problems in producing retail catalogues is, if they are printed with typos or inconsistent branding, the cost of rectifying this can be huge.

Software such as BAM by Papirfly™ can help ensure that catalogues reach the printers in pristine conditions, with no mistakes and no discrepancies. Easy-to-use, pre-set templates make it virtually impossible for users to produce something that doesn’t reflect your brand values.

Furthermore, PIM and ERP system integration guarantees that all product information and data incorporated within your catalogue is up-to-date and accurate.

Target your audience

Another criticism of catalogues is that they were a scattergun approach – costs to produce and distribute these could be high, and reach people that were completely uninterested with them.

If you have access to clearer data on your customers’ preferences and commitment to your brand, you can target who are most likely to appreciate the arrival of a catalogue.

When Amazon started producing holiday toy catalogues, these were targeted to children’s parents based on the children’s age groups and the TV shows they viewed. This tailored approach helped ensure that the catalogues were relevant to their audience, leading to more successful conversions.

Use sustainable materials

Finally, with an increasing appreciation towards the future of the environment and sustainability, it is beneficial that retailers focus on producing catalogues out of recycled materials.

This removes the concerns customers and others may have surrounding the sustainability of retail catalogues, while your brand can still reap the benefits that these resources can offer.

Revamp your retail marketing with BAM

We hope this has illustrated that the catalogue still has a meaningful role in any retailer’s marketing mix. In a world that is rapidly growing dependent on digital, these printed assets can provide customers with unique, powerful experiences, which may keep them engaged far longer with your brand than a flurry of online ads and emails.

If you would like to focus more attention on catalogues and other printed collateral, but are concerned about how this could affect your budget, BAM by Papirfly™ makes asset creation faster, more cost-effective, and more secure.

  • Produce all assets from a single platform, including campaigns, POS signage, digital marketing and more
  • Increase turnaround times by bringing all production in-house – anyone can use BAM successfully, regardless of design expertise
  • Create sizes tailored at store level, allowing you to proactively respond to localised demands
  • Effectively organise your in-store promotions, briefs and timelines in an intuitive campaign planner
  • Establish a central, global resource for teams to view, share, edit and reuse assets

Accelerate your retail marketing like never before – speak to our team about the full benefits of BAM, or discover them for yourself by booking a demo.

Table of contents:

  1. The enduring relevance of retail catalogues
  2. How 3 brands are still harnessing retail catalogues
  3. What can you do to unlock your retail catalogues’ potential?
  4. Revamp your retail marketing with BAM
Employer brand

Your simple introduction to the basics of recruitment

Luis Cupertino
5 minutes read

Whether you’re new to employer branding or a pro that’s been around the block a few times, it’s still sometimes difficult to describe exactly what an employer brand is to those outside the industry.

There’s no single roadmap or strategy to follow. For each company, an employer brand will embody something entirely different, even while working towards many of the same goals, or when looking to attract similar talent. 

So what if we try to humanise an employer brand, and take a step back to really put ourselves in the shoes of the prospective candidate?

Let’s not think of it as a roadmap or strategy and take it right back to basics. As a candidate, what are the key things you would want to see, hear, think and feel about a company?

In this article, we’re going to explore the key candidate ‘senses’ that brands should look to engage, and all the ways it can be done… 

What candidates want to see… 

Employee satisfaction

There’s no greater cheerleader for your brand than those who already work for you. If your candidates can have access to real-world testimonials and trust factors from employees, they are more likely to form a positive opinion about your company. 

While it’s not the be all and end all, more often than not GlassDoor is one of the first destinations for candidates. If you’re putting some great stuff about culture out to the world, but your reviews on GlassDoor are overwhelmingly negative, you’ll need some damage control. 

Active social media

When a company isn’t very active on social media it can imply three things:

  1. There’s nobody there to take care of it
  2. The team is too overworked to manage it
  3. The company is very traditional and will be reluctant to change

Keeping your channels fresh, engaging and populated will help candidates take your brand seriously. And what better way to tell your brand story?

Likewise, it’s not uncommon to have a friendly stalk of a prospective company’s employees’ LinkedIn profiles, so it’s important to encourage employees to be as active as they can. If not on their personal channels, showcasing them on your brand’s main channels can still work wonders.

Team spirit and culture 

Now this is an important one, but one of the trickiest to do. Company culture has been catapulted to the top of many employers’ priority lists, but when the pandemic struck it became difficult to maintain. Now we’re seeing a slow ascend back to some kind of normality, employer brand teams can really start embracing company culture once more. 

A big part of this is retaining the option to work flexibly or in some kind of hybrid capacity.

Benefits in action 

Think bigger than stocked fridges and massage Wednesdays. What are the perks that are going to really pay off for your employees and keep them happy longer term? 

Perhaps a paid sabbatical after a certain amount of years’ service. Or a free gym membership to keep their health in check. Small recurring gestures such as free fruit are a really nice touch, but there needs to be some bigger acts that can actually help your employees reach their goals – both inside and outside of work.

Detailed job descriptions 

Vague job roles are a red flag for anyone, but they’re guaranteed to make your candidate feel uneasy about applying. A job is a huge life commitment. You wouldn’t enquire about a house if there was a lack of detail – it would be suspicious and off-putting.

Provide as much detail as possible, and if the role is set to evolve, make that clear from the outset. Plus, be careful not to omit the salary as that’s a big red flag for most candidates.

What candidates want to hear…

Support and encouragement

When high-level jobs are advertised, the language used can sometimes be complex and intimidating. 

While it’s important to attract the candidate that matches your desired profile, remember to keep an element of friendliness and warmth or you may deter strong candidates from applying. This is a particular danger when allowing external recruiters to write job ads on your behalf, you should ensure you always get the final sight of any job advert or description that goes out.

Additionally, giving candidates the option to interview via video call or in-person will help to widen your talent pool, particularly if a candidate is interviewing for the role and considering relocation.

It’s advised to weigh up whether a virtual interview will help or hinder the process, and assess what’s available on a case-by-case basis.

Inspirational messaging

While the practical and matter-of-fact information takes primary importance in any campaigns you put out, remember you could be against any number of competitors offering a similar role. Whether it’s a Spotify ad, a radio recruitment drive or virtual careers fair, don’t miss any opportunity to inspire and let the world know just how incredible it is to work for your company.

Voices from inside the business as well as the brand

If you’ve got plenty of branded content going out, that’s great news, but it will only take you so far. Candidates want to see real faces and hear the voices of your employees, whether that’s a general insight into working for the company or department-specific information.

What candidates need to think about your company…

“This is a company I want to work for”

How this is achieved…

  • Having a strong employer brand
  • Creating engaging and exciting recruitment campaigns
  • Boasting positive reviews from existing employees
  • Offering competitive salary and additional benefits

“They treat their employees so well”

How this is achieved…

  • Putting existing employees at the heart of your recruitment assets
  • Encouraging individuals to post about their experience on professional social media networks
  • Filming and promoting lots of high-quality video content about working life and culture

“I can’t wait to get started”

How this is achieved…

  • Keeping open, honest communication throughout the process, from application to hire
  • Providing new starters with an agenda of their first week/month
  • Putting together a welcome pack to make them feel welcome
  • Incorporating virtual or in-person ‘meet the team’ session prior to start date

“I can see a future here”

How this is achieved…

  • Promoting stories about employees who have been around a long time
  • Speaking about positive retention rates in collateral
  • Informing employees of incentivised loyalty benefits such as paid sabbaticals, increasing holiday or other rewards after ‘X’ years of service

How your employer brand should make your candidates feel…

Confident that what they’re seeing is genuine

Everything needs to add up. If the story you’re telling through your campaigns and social media isn’t supported by positive employee reviews or contradictory information online, candidates could disengage before they’ve applied.

Excited about their prospects and the potential of the company

If the company has ambitious plans for the future, ensure this narrative is woven through the recruitment and hiring process. Candidates need to be aware of when they’re starting at a business that’s going in the right direction. The greater the potential success of the brand, the more career growth opportunities they could be presented with. 

At ease asking questions and with the recruitment team

The interview process can be daunting at the best of times. But when your hiring managers are confident, engaging and welcoming, candidates will feel more at home being themselves and more likely to delve into the questions they really want to ask. 

Get every aspect of your employer brand on track with BAM by Papirfly™ 

By now we hope we’ve helped you understand the candidate’s experience from their perspective. Everything we have covered also needs foundations in a powerful employer brand.

With BAM (Brand Activation Management), you can create, access, manage and share every aspect of your campaigns and brand in one place.

  • Create infinite digital, print, social, email and video assets without professional support – all delivered on time and on-brand
  • Store, share and edit pre-existing assets and files – all perfectly organised with no need to waste time on searching or duplication of effort 
  • Manage campaign timelines, the sign off process and more effortlessly in our centralised portal 
  • Educate teams with a dedicated selection of assets that help them understand your brand and how to showcase your employer brand

If you would like to see the power of BAM for yourself, a demo is a great place to start. Find out more about our software or book your demo today.

Table of contents:

  1. What candidates want to see…
  2. What candidates want to hear…
  3. What candidates need to think about your company…
  4. How your employer brand should make your candidates feel…
Brand Communication, Brand identity, Brand strategy

How to communicate your brand

Papirfly
3 minutes read

Branding is all about communicating your brand – building a strong brand presence that creates desire and attracts customers. Successful branding = Business growth. Consistency and brand experience are two of four key qualities consumers value and that keeps them coming back for more. How effective is your brand communication? Are you attracting the right customers, and are they loyal?

Factors that impact your brand communication are your colleagues, available resources and manpower, the number of channels and platforms that require your brand presence, your competitors, and your audience to mention a few. As always, there are some dos and don’ts that affect your success rate.

Here’s a short list on how to successfully communicate your brand

1. Establish brand identity guidelines

A key goal for any brand should be to achieve consistency. Consumers expect your brand to be consistent and it is connected to the growth potentials of your company. This is not an impossible task, but it does require effort and dedication in addition to a real plan.

For brand consistency to happen, you need brand rules. Proper brand identity guidelines that concern everyone who is communicating your brand. These brand guidelines need to set the standard for all employees and external stakeholders on how to use and apply your brand across any and all channels.

Also read: Create branding guidelines with a brand management platform

2. Establish internal brand guidelines and align your branding processes

Employees are the central participants in your brand communication. It’s impossible to communicate a brand if you don’t have your employees on your side. Think of it as a football team playing a game. If the team isn’t aware of the purpose and goal of the game, and no one knows what position they play or how to do it, you will have a team scattered all over the football field, running in different directions. It’s safe to say that team won’t win the game.

The same applies to branding. Everyone in the company needs to know why branding is important and what role they play on the team. Therefore, make sure your brand guidelines include internal brand strategies and align your external and internal branding processes.

Also read: This is internal employee branding and how you get started

3. Establish proper brand asset management

Having brand identity guidelines in place is unfortunately not enough to achieve brand consistency. In fact, 95% of organizations have branding guidelines, but only 1/4th have formal guidelines that are consistently enforced. One step in the right direction is to establish brand asset management.

Brand asset management is the system that connects the dots between your brand guidelines and your brand assets. This is the system that enables seamless and intuitive user workflows, making it effective and easy to apply your brand regardless of who’s in need, or which channel or platform is utilized. By having this in place, growing and developing your brand becomes easier, and everyone who needs to use your brand can do so effortlessly and quickly from one single location.

Also read: What is brand asset management?

4. Create a brand communication strategy

To win the football game, or in this case, win against the competitors by achieving brand consistency and building a strong brand identity, your employees need to be included and informed about the strategy.

It’s not enough for them to know that they are a part of the plan and their role. They also need to know what is required from them. This part is essential in brand communication. Although a customer service representative and a receptionist represent the same company, their role and how they need to interact with the audience is different. To succeed, this needs to be accounted for in your brand communication strategy. By adapting the brand communication strategy to each role individually, you’ll have a better chance of realization.

5. Develop and grow your brand continuously and meet market expectations

There’s no resting when it comes to branding. How you communicate your brand today, might not fit or be sufficient tomorrow.

The market changes and so do consumers. On one hand we have a fast-growing Martech space that puts pressure on marketing teams and our ability to follow our own brand communication strategy. It’s not easy to deliver on demand when deadlines are behind us, and resources are short. On the other hand, we have consumers. How they search for information, what they value and how they engage with your brand varies between them. When communicating your brand, you need to adapt at the same speed and meet these expectations.

Communicate your brand with digital solutions

Just as you digitize your private life to simplify and increase your own efficiency, you need to do the same for your work life and your brand. By digitizing your branding processes, following the above steps will be easy. Everything about your brand can easily be maintained, developed, and communicated from one single solution.

No second guessing. Everyone will know everything they need to know to communicate your brand with ease.

Marketing

7 engaging team exercises for content idea generation

Papirfly
6 minutes read

We’ve all been there before. Stood in front of a blank whiteboard or sheet of paper. Awkward pauses that seem to last an eternity. Meeting rooms populated with blank or strained expressions.

Creating fresh content ideas can be a frustrating experience for all involved. Even highly experienced creatives can’t turn this on and off like a tap – sometimes inspiration just doesn’t arrive naturally, resulting in periods of stony silence during brainstorming sessions.

When this happens, simply sitting around and praying for an idea to pop in someone’s head won’t cut it. Instead, teams should look to resuscitate these sessions with engaging, collaborative exercises that have been proven to combat fatigue and spur creativity.

Here, we’ll share seven of our favourite team exercises to trial for yourself, and how they all can be applied to content idea generation.

1. Empathy mapping

An empathy map is a collaborative tool that teams can use to develop a deeper understanding of their audience – their wants, their pain points, their preferences, etc. This dives into the thoughts and feelings of customers in order to determine what they would like to see, and what would hold no relevance to them whatsoever.

On your empathy map, you might include several sections to answer important questions about who your audience is, such as:

  • What do they think and feel about your product/service/brand?
  • What are their aspirations? What are their concerns?
  • What do they hear and see about your organisation on a daily basis?
  • How do they talk about your brand? Does this change whether they’re in public or in private?
  • What environments would/do they typically use your product/service in?
  • What barriers do they have to using your products/services?
  • How much have customers enjoyed using your products/services in the past?

How to apply this to content generation

Empathy mapping can be applied to all areas of marketing, especially content generation. By placing this map at the centre of your discussions, either by sticking it to a wall or on your whiteboard, you can use your audience’s needs, wants and issues to steer what content you create to address these head-on.

So, rather than use guesswork or pluck ideas from thin air, you work directly from what you know about your audience to guide the content you produce.

A similar technique is role-storming. This takes empathy mapping to a more theatrical level, where you have those involved in the brainstorming session take on the role of your audience personas.

2. Role-storming

This is designed to remove any personal inhibitions or judgements, and decisively step into your customer’s shoes. Rather than bring any preconceived notions about what content is based on from your perspective, you are forced to consider what your audience wants and needs, and respond accordingly.

How to apply this to content generation

This technique can be combined with empathy mapping to help influence your content ideas. Perhaps you could interview members of your sales or customer service teams – the people who interact with your audience everyday – to adopt these roles as they can best embody your audience’s desires and pain points.

Then, either act out a scene or conduct an interview with this “audience persona” to figure out what content would capture their imagination.

3. Starbursting

Instead of immediately focusing on answers and solutions, starbursting encourages creatives to prioritise the questions in brainstorming sessions. By devoting time to generating relevant, useful questions relating to the topic at hand, your team is in a position to answer these with greater clarity.

You should build your starburst map on the 5Ws and 1H:

  • What
  • When
  • Where
  • Why
  • Who
  • How

How to apply this to content generation

Say you are marketing for a real estate company and want to create content around property viewings. On each point of your starburst map, you may have questions like:

  • What will potential buyers expect to see during a property viewing?
  • When is the best day of the week to arrange a property viewing?
  • Where do potential buyers look first during property viewings?
  • Why are property viewings important?
  • Who can help someone prepare for a property viewing?
  • How can you ensure viewers have the best experience possible?

The questions built up during this session can inspire a wave of articles, videos, infographics, social posts and other assets designed to answer each one proposed.

4. Brainwriting

Also known as slip writing, brainwriting encourages a natural flow of consciousness involving every participant in a brainstorming session. First, without any prior communication, each person anonymously writes down their ideas and thoughts on a piece of paper, index card or post-it notes. These are then collected and positioned in clear view of everyone. 

The ideas themselves can be completely unconventional or bizarre, but the aim is to use these as jumping-off points for constructive conversation. Rather than wait for people to speak up, their anonymity gives them greater freedom to write whatever’s on their minds without fear of judgement, and ideas can then be discussed and adapted where necessary.

How to apply this to content generation

Brainwriting can be very powerful for content generation, as it encourages people to share ideas without risk of ridicule. It can also highlight the concepts of people who may not be as confident speaking in a group setting, so everyone is able to contribute.

During a session, you might pass ideas around from person to person for a few rounds to refine and add to the initial concepts. This can mean they are in a more complete state when the group reconvenes to discuss the ideas, so the chosen ones are in a better position to be taken forward.

5. S.C.A.M.P.E.R.

The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. technique inspires people to look at a problem or topic from a variety of different angles, allowing them to consider those areas in a very specific, focused way. The acronym is broken down into:

  • Substitute
  • Combine
  • Adapt
  • Modify
  • Put to another use
  • Eliminate
  • Reverse

By looking at ideas through these distinct lenses, it can offer fresh perspectives on how to approach a topic.

How to apply this to content generation

During a content idea brainstorm, S.C.A.M.P.E.R. can encourage attendees to imagine different ways to look at a topic, as well as build on an initial concept with one of these seven distinct approaches.

You might substitute the audience your topic is aimed towards, or combine one topic with another one brought forward to create a different concept altogether. Even if some of the ideas developed through this technique are non-starters, it is valuable in guiding people down different paths regarding a topic.

6. Six thinking hats

The Six Thinking Hats philosophy was developed by Edward De Bono in 1985, and is built around six unique thinking styles:

The six hats and what they mean

  • Blue hat – process
  • White hat – facts
  • Yellow hat – benefits
  • Green hat – creativity
  • Red hat – feelings
  • Black hat – cautions

To apply this to a brainstorming session, you could either have different participants within a meeting metaphorically wear these different hats, or have everyone wear one hat at a time to cover each area step by step.

How to apply this to content generation

During a content generation session, you might apply the Six Thinking Hats technique in the following way:

  • The chair of the meeting wears the blue hat, coordinating all other participants and reinforcing the goals and outcomes of the meeting
  • White hats bring forward any data or information they have available about the topic being discussed
  • Green hats encourage new and innovative ideas, and are there to think outside the box
  • Yellow hats bring forward the benefits and advantages of ideas generated during the session
  • Red hats focus on the emotions and gut feelings felt by their audience towards the topic
  • Black hats looks at the logical risks and concerns surrounding ideas brought to the table

By giving everyone a specific role in this process, it can make creative meetings more streamlined and enables people to play to their strengths, rather than conduct the brainstorming as a free-for-all.

7. Stepladder

The final technique we will highlight is the stepladder. As it sounds, it takes a step-by-step approach to idea generation, and is particularly powerful in an environment where a few individuals are drowning out others during sessions.

Once the meeting begins, everyone vacates the room outside of two people, who discuss their ideas together. After a couple of minutes, another person enters, who then shares their ideas uninterrupted. Then, all three discuss their ideas together.

One by one more people enter the room until every participant is back together. This ensures that everyone has a chance to share their concepts without interruption, and helps highlight common themes and thoughts that can be pursued following this session.

How to apply this to content generation

During a content brainstorming session, the stepladder technique can help bring the most popular ideas for a topic to the forefront, while also uncovering more out-of-the-box approaches that may prove just as valuable. 

Rather than a couple of powerful voices reaching a consensus, all ideas are given an audience. All perspectives are given a fair shake, which could unlock unique, compelling approaches for upcoming campaigns.

Showcase your ideas with BAM

If you have often found brainstorming sessions grinding to a halt due to a lack of ideas, organisation or enthusiasm, we hope this inspires you to trial new techniques that will get your team’s creativity flowing.

Find the methods that engage your participants the most and encourage the most abundant range of ideas, and your sessions will soon become a hotbed of unique, vibrant concepts.

But, once you have exciting ideas for your content, it’s time to share them with the world. BAM by Papirfly™ gives you the power to produce professional print, digital and video assets, online, in an instant, and control your content like never before.

  • Easy-to-use design software enables you to create an infinite amount of marketing assets in-house
  • Intelligent templates ensure BAM can be used by anyone to produce high-quality, perfectly branded assets – no design expertise necessary
  • Create brochures, videos, emails, social media assets and more completely independently
  • Adapt campaign materials, text and imagery for use in your markets across the globe

Take the speed, quality and cost-effectiveness of your content marketing to the next level. Discover the full capabilities of BAM by arranging your free demo, or get in touch with our team if you’d like to learn more.

Table of contents:

  1. 1. Empathy mapping
  2. 2. Role-storming
  3. 3. Starbursting
  4. 4. Brainwriting
  5. 5. S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
  6. 6. Six thinking hats
  7. 7. Stepladder
Employer brand

The essential role of storytelling in employer branding

Papirfly
8 minutes read

There are few things that leave a more powerful impression on the human mind as a well-told story.

Whether it’s a blockbuster movie or the latest ad for a global brand, strong storytelling captures the imagination of audiences and imparts messages, lessons and emotions that, when conveyed effectively, stay with people for the rest of their lives.

But the art of storytelling is not restricted to Hollywood or publishing houses – it also has a vital role in the persuasive power of employer branding.

The decision to join a company and remain there is largely driven by emotion. Prospective candidates want to feel what it is like to work for that brand, to experience how it will engage and motivate them day-to-day. Meanwhile, existing employees need consistent reinforcement of the purpose behind your brand, and their role in bringing that to fruition.

Good storytelling is essential in getting these points across in a way that standalone facts and statistics simply can’t. 

Stories inspire emotions. They move people. They forge connections.

Here, we advocate the value of storytelling in employer branding and how it can greatly enhance your efforts to recruit and retain top talent, illustrated with real-life examples from top brands.

How storytelling conveys employer brand values

At a fundamental level, employer brand storytelling should be purpose-driven. This means it conveys a message or lesson that the reader/viewer takes away, having recognised the experiences and emotions of the characters within that story.

Take the timeless tale of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. Although you could simply tell someone the moral of this story outright, that if you lie too often then people won’t believe you when you’re actually telling the truth, framing it in its true ‘story’ context leaves a more potent, vivid impression as to why this lesson is so important.

Employer brand storytelling should take the same initiative. Simply presenting candidates and employees with statistics, benefits and perks of being part of your company will not inspire the same emotional response as a well-told story. 

They want to know what it feels like to be part of your team. 

  • What skills will they pick up?
  • What challenges will they face?
  • Who will they interact with?
  • What will make them happy? 

This can only be effectively conveyed in a well-constructed story, harnessing the history and values of your brand and the authentic experiences of your existing employees.

67% of employers believe their retention rates would improve if candidates had a clearer picture of their company’s values (Glassdoor)

A compelling story is the most valuable gift that organisations can give their employer brand. To breathe personality and experience into the glossy imagery and polished messages. When done well, employer brand storytelling should:

  • Inspire available talent to become part of your organisation
  • Plant the seeds in passive candidates’ mind that you would represent a great place to work one day
  • Provide the information on-the-fence candidates need to deselect themselves if they don’t feel connected to your company values
  • Differentiate yourself from competitors within your industry
  • Consistently reinforce your brand values and objectives into your existing workforce, so they always feel connected to your company
  • Create internal brand advocates, who will in turn share their own stories that will inform and encourage future candidates

It requires a firm understanding of your target audience’s characteristics and ambitions. Emphatic content writing and creative direction. Knowledge of the most appropriate channels to use and a number of truthful employee experiences to lay the foundations.

Below we’ve identified some top-notch examples of employer brand storytelling and the lessons to take away from these, divided into three overarching categories:

Employer brand storytelling through social media

75% believe companies are more trustworthy if their leadership teams communicate their brand values over social media (Glassdoor).

It’s impossible to escape the pull of social media platforms in today’s landscape, making them essential places for companies to promote their employer brand story.

Microsoft Life

The Microsoft Life Instagram page weaves powerful stories about what it is like to be part of their community through the journeys of their team members across the globe.

This delves into the real-life experiences of their talent, both positive and negative, and how being part of the Microsoft family helped them overcome any challenges and achieve their ambitions. 

By harnessing these authentic stories, from people representing all backgrounds, cultures and personalities, their IG page paints an extraordinary picture of how supportive the brand is to its workforce, which should encourage others to join.

Lesson learnt – by utilising identifiable human stories of triumph and challenge from within your own team, you help forge real emotional connections towards them and, consequently, your brand as a whole.

Salesforce

The #SalesforceOhana Instagram tag is all about emphasising the pride the company has in its employees. Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family, and by using this expression, it immediately creates a narrative that the people working for Salesforce are more than just employees – they are family, connected to each other and the brand as a whole.

This framework is then fleshed out with images, videos and stories of their team members worldwide doing fun and interesting things, often with other employees. This highlights the fantastic company culture within the Salesforce brand, making it appear as a welcoming and enjoyable place to work.

Lesson learnt – create a unifying hashtag or term to bond your employees together across the globe on social media, making your team members always feel part of your community and the values that this represents.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s Instagram page often presents behind-the-scenes footage of life at the company alongside the experiences of specific members of their team. These videos and imagery illustrate the culture of the brand and the humour and creativity of those working within it, framing it in a way that is very slick and aspirational.

Especially since the transition to more home-working, Mailchimp has also used their social media platforms to depict how they are bringing their remote workers together with community activities, from yoga and meditation exercises to group cooking classes.

Lesson learnt – tell stories on social media that go behind the curtain of your business, allowing prospective candidates to envision themselves being part of that environment.

Employer brand storytelling through video

Video has quickly become the go-to source of content across the entire Internet, and represents a perfect medium to bring your employer brand story to life.

Zendesk

In one compact, well-structured video, Zendesk presents a clear picture of who their brand is, where they are based, what you will experience when you go there, and the type of people that you will be working with.

It blends the right amount of humour and irreverence to present it as a fun, light-hearted brand where you will enjoy working. But, it doesn’t steer too far away from the actual work, illustrating how they make it exciting. Plus, it signs off by saying they hire interesting people with interesting backgrounds – a category most people would like to find themselves in!

Lessons learnt – inject your employer brand story with personality, and make it abundantly clear what candidates can expect when they join your team.

Etsy

After Etsy announced it would offer employees six-and-a-half months’ parental leave, they produced this video containing interviews with their parent employees about what this support from the brand has meant to them.

This projects a powerful message to both existing employees and potential recruits about how much Etsy cares about its workforce, and how it doesn’t present a barrier to their personal lives. For those with plans for having kids in the future, hearing these stories will provide immense reassurance that this company will continue to have their back.

Lesson learnt – identify specific pain points or concerns that your audiences may have relating to where they work (parental leave, flexible working, overtime, etc.) and create story-driven content that clearly demonstrates your stance.

Heineken

The “Go Places” video by Heineken is incredibly clever and creative, depicting the questions and doubts potential recruits might have about joining their brand (or any other brand for that matter) and providing snappy, encouraging answers.

Through this, Heineken strongly positions itself as a brand where people can join and forge their own path and find their niche. By casting a large number of their employees alongside the main narrator and throwing in selective facts and figures like their 250+ brands and 70+ countries, it illustrates the scale and variety of the company in a way that is neither too corporate nor arrogant.

Lesson learnt – revisit the questions, thoughts, and journeys of your existing employees before joining your brand, and tie these to your company values to demonstrate that you understand what your audience is thinking and what they’re looking for.

Employer brand storytelling through career pages

Charity Water

Quit your day job and come change the world. Right from the opening line of their career page, Charity Water immediately tells the story of how working with them means you are making a difference, and reinforces that spirit throughout.

Weaved into this overarching narrative are distinctly defined perks and benefits, photos and videos of company-wide activities, and copy dedicated to the diversity of their employees. Blended together, Charity Water’s career page emphasises that they are a brand that gives people a purpose in a welcoming, inclusive environment.

Lesson learnt – start your employer brand stroy with a punchy, powerful statement, and then reinforce that with data, testimonials and more that illustrate that you practice what you preach as an organisation.

VTS

The VTS career page effectively utilises video content throughout to showcase the unique experience that they offer for employees. The first element you encounter as you scroll down is a behind-the-scenes video that highlights their employees in action and tells the story of how they are transforming the world of commercial real estate.

Further down the page, VTS’ company values are put in full focus, and then reinforced by interviews with employees explaining how these values work in practice. This is particularly important as while any organisation can say how they are different, the authentic testimonies of their workforce give these a lot more weight, and will signify to potential recruits that you are what you say you are.

Lesson learnt – back each and every one of your company values with a narrative, whether that is a backstory behind each one and what it means to your leadership team, or examples from employees putting these values into action in their everyday lives.

Twitter

At a time when Millennial and Gen Z talent is motivated by the difference they can make to a company, Twitter pivots off of this with their career page. The page focuses on how its workforce drives conversations across the globe and the values that underlie their organisation, from being totally transparent within their team, to helping people maintain healthy work-life balances.

Each of these is backed up by beautifully produced videos spotlighting members of their team in a variety of roles, with each of them advocating the role they and others play in making Twitter the world-renowned platform that it is today.

Lesson learnt – harness the voices, skills and experiences across your team and connect these to your company values to illustrate their authenticity and pinpoint the type of people who would excel in your environment.

Bringing story into your employer branding

We hope that these examples of employer brand pieces that capably tell engaging stories about who their organisations are, what makes them different and why people want to be part of them will give you the inspiration you need to forge the same for your own company moving forward.

Storytelling is the most powerful weapon for employer brand professionals in stirring the right emotions from their audiences. Approaches such as those highlighted above are how you put candidates in the shoes of your existing employees, so they can vividly recognise what it would be like to join your team, and whether that aligns with their own ambitions.

As a final recap of how to maximise the potential of storytelling in your employer branding, we recommend you keep the following in mind:

  • Build a thorough, watertight understanding of your target audience, and use this to guide the direction of the stories you craft
  • Always remain truthful and authentic – fake stories and broken promises will only lead to low retention rates, and potentially harm your ability to attract talent in future
  • Where possible, adapt and adjust your brand story for the specific audiences that you wish to target
  • Leverage your existing employees to be the foundation of these authentic, purpose-driven stories, and give them all the support they need to tell them
  • Identify the most appropriate channels based on where your target audience can be found and the type of message you are looking to share
  • Experiment with different content mediums and make the most of each resource – one employee interview could inspire multiple videos, blog posts, images, infographics and more!

Discover how far your employer brand can go with an all-in-one brand management platform – get in touch with our team today.

Table of contents:

  1. How storytelling conveys employer brand values
  2. Employer brand storytelling through social media
  3. Employer brand storytelling through video
  4. Employer brand storytelling through career pages
  5. Bringing story into your employer branding
Brand Asset Management / BAM, Brand identity

What is a brand platform?

Papirfly
4 minutes read

Tired of colleagues who don’t follow the brand guidelines and do their own thing? Or perhaps you’re always stressed because you’re lacking resources and enough hours to do your marketing responsibilities properly? The feeling of constantly being behind, missing important deadlines, is not pleasant and stress doesn’t tend to result in quality either.

It’s time to take control and become a marketing superstar! You need a brand platform.

Applying a consistent brand is hard

How do you distribute and enforce brand rules? PDF’s and emails or intranet? Do you know if your colleagues find it easy to find and use brand collateral or even understand your brand guidelines?

There are surprisingly many questions that come to the surface when we start looking at brand identity guidelines and how employees adopt them. In fact, 15% still lack guidelines and 31% indicate that their guidelines are followed selectively.

There’s not a single marketer who would disagree with the importance of brand consistency. But the journey of getting there is proven to be bumpy and lengthy, in the mentioned report it is found that the creation of off-brand content has only dropped 4% in two years, a staggering 77% still see off-brand content in circulation. In other words, we understand the importance of consistency, but we are incapable of achieving it.

A typical challenge related to off-brand content is the marketing team’s ability to deliver on demand. Ad hoc tasks and support requests tend to drain resources and it gets hard for the team to deliver as expected. Instead, colleagues do their own thing, off-brand of course… Another factor that’s related to off-brand creations is the usability and availability of the brand guidelines. Where can one locate the guidelines? How can one apply the rules to the actual assets being made? And where are the assets stored?

Also read: You know you need a brand management system when…

A brand platform unifies your brand

A brand platform digitizes your brand management. Driven by powerful CMS technology you’ll be able to create stunning online brand identity guidelines that perfectly matches your brand image. Like creating a website, you’ll collect and structure your brand guidelines as you see fit and create a logical online brand platform that your employees and stakeholders can easily use.

No more looking for the last PDF version of your guidelines. Just like your company website, your brand platform will have its own unique URL that every employee can access, 365 days a year.

With an online brand platform, managing and developing your brand is easy. Regardless of changes or updates, everything happens in real time. The risks of colleagues using outdated marketing collateral is eliminated and you can rest assured your brand looks the same everywhere.

Also read: Surely, you have a brand portal

A brand platform simplifies brand development

Just like brand consistency is important, so is growing and nurturing your brand. The market changes, consumers change and technology advances. A good example of this can be taken from the Covid pandemic. Many marketers learned then how important it was to swiftly adapt to changing consumer behaviour to stay in the game. Without proper technology at hand, the ability to adapt consequently has an impact on your branding initiatives and you risk falling behind your competitors.

A proper brand platform allows you to expand and grow your platform to quickly adapt to unexpected changes. Whether you need to update and inform, create and add new brand assets, or update templates, you can do it quickly and easily, without breaking with the guidelines. A proper system will also allow you do integrate with other necessary marketing tools such as video creators or banner creators to name a few. Simply put, a proper brand platform enables brand development on demand.

Also read: This is how Brand HUB streamlines your day

Benefits of a brand platform

Hopefully by now you’ve realized that investing in a brand platform should be your next step. But we know that you perhaps need to convince management or other colleagues that this is the way to go.

Also read: Why you need to invest in brand management

We advise you to do a thorough map up of your challenges and needs before you choose your desired system, in the meantime have the following benefits in mind as you complete your analysis.

  • Managing your brand strategy is straightforward:
    A brand platform brings your strategy to life, organizing your brand to secure quality and consistency across all channels.
  • Protecting your brand identity is easy:
    Protecting your most valuable asset is crucial, and with a brand platform this is a done deal. Everything is neatly stored and organized to simplify brand asset management.
  • Your brand becomes practical:
    When it comes to brand guidelines, the more user-friendly your brand is, the more likely it is that everyone will use your brand as intended. With a brand platform, you’ll link the rules and the actual brand assets together. Users don’t have to think; just act and your brand identity remains intact. This is brand asset management at its best.
  • Streamline your branding processes and operational efficiency:
    When time is of the essence and you are looking to avoid being a bottleneck and frustrate your colleagues, a brand platform saves your day. A proper platform enables self-service, allowing anyone to create their own marketing collateral, quickly and on-brand.

Also read: How to choose a branding system

Take the step and invest

To summarize, a brand platform enables seamless brand asset management, creating a home for your brand. This is the platform that allows you to focus on the big picture while resting assured that your brand looks the same everywhere. And remember, when you master your brand, your business will grow.

Want to dig into more details on how a brand platform can benefit your brand, download our free whitepaper

Retail Marketing

How is retail marketing changing?

Papirfly
6 minutes read

Retail has undergone constant evolution since the industrial revolution. In the last 25 years alone we’ve seen the rise, fall and fight of the high street and the eclipsing growth of online shopping. While brick-and-mortar stores have been struggling for some years now, the recent pandemic has the potential to reshape the retail industry as we know it.

What we’re seeing isn’t an even scale of hardship, with different types of retailers finding themselves in disparate positions on the crisis spectrum. Non-essential retailers have had to close their physical premises and diversify their online offering. Essential retailers such as supermarkets were initially buckling under increased demand and are now flourishing in the face of global adversity. When retail stores are eventually allowed to reopen, there will likely be all sorts of measures and changes to implement.

Loyalties to retailers which have been built over years through relentless marketing campaigns, PR and customer experience initiatives have the potential to be strengthened or broken depending on the actions retailers take during these times. As a huge proportion of purchases lean towards food, drink and essentials, and amidst heavy economic uncertainty, retailers that fall into the non-essential category have to fight hard to keep their relationships with customers.

Big chains coping with a tsunami of increased demand such as supermarkets need to take into consideration that the experience they receive at the store will largely affect their choice on returning. If I had been going to Tesco my whole life, but then endured a few bad experiences in the crisis, I might vary where I shop at or choose a new supermarket entirely – no matter how great their campaigns are.

Here are the four fundamentals that I’ve observed successful retailers doing and how these actions might help to shape the future of retail marketing as we know it.

Doing good

Those remaining true to their values are setting the world ablaze with kind and heroic acts. In the UK in particular, supermarkets are leading the way with feel-good initiatives and campaigns. Whether it’s helping to feed the community by donating leftover goods, creating different opening hours for more vulnerable people or going out of their way to ensure cleanliness and proper sanitation, many have stepped up to the plate and done their bit to help their communities.

What’s also interesting is the narrative of the marketing campaigns. While each supermarket has come together to tackle logistical issues such as delivery driver shortages, they are ultimately still vying for the attention of the public. A format that’s become commonplace on our screens is a grid of customers and employees leading the messaging. The focus has firmly shifted from peddling products and price cuts, to creating a sense of community and belonging.

Outside of food retail, many stores are going dark in order to fulfil the online markets. Many retailers are introducing free delivery, extended returns policies and some are even diversifying their products. In terms of the latter, one example is Brewdog who has turned their attention to producing hand sanitiser as they already have the facilities to produce the alcohol content. While each of these moves will favour the brands commercially, they are underpinned by a genuine desire to help as much as they possibly can.

In the future, retail brands will be remembered for their actions and what they did to provide respite during these times. Marketing activity will of course be affected for some time; as retailers share much-needed good news stories and inspirational campaigns, everything else will temporarily fall by the wayside. But sooner or later, this narrative will become tired, and consumers will seek to once again be surprised by humourous or even irreverent content.  

Looking after employees

A spotlight is firmly cast on retailers during these times, with many held to question whether their workforce is considered essential. Opinions aside, those who are looking after employees are likely to be spoken about positively online. Those who have gone against what the general public believe to be right will be the topic of many a Twitter debate, and also find themselves subject to press and media scrutiny – a PR disaster nobody can afford right now.

While many of the generous acts that have taken place are a genuine token of gratitude, it’s worth examining how this will work favourably for the employer brand of large retailers in the long term. The next generation of employees is closely watching retailers on the world stage, and if they like what they see, this will be remembered when the dust settles and they consider their next career move.

This includes those who are, as difficult as it is to say, profiting from the crisis (out of their control, admittedly). Giving employees pay raises and bonuses is incredibly important from an outside perspective, any retail brand excelling financially and not redistributing the wealth could be perceived in a very negative light and could put off well-needed prospective employees. 

With limited access to professional camera crews and video editors, I’ve also seen many retail brands focusing on putting their employees front and centre, sharing their expertise and championing great work. Positivity in retail marketing is going to go a long way in keeping consumers engaged. Offers and discounts are only going to go so far in creating a rapport with customers – expectations have risen exponentially from all sides. Retailers have been attempting for years to step away from being faceless organisations, and now we’re getting to know their employees, this could go a long way in making them more personable.  

Online focused

With many in the retail industry lacking a full physical presence, online and digital marketing is becoming ever-more competitive to grab market share. Likewise, those who are inundated with visitors have to make allowances to make sure their site can cope with capacity, as seen with the introduction of ‘virtual queuing’.

Website features are adapting for the here and now, but we could see many of them here to stay in the future. Many fashion brands are much more focused on pushing ‘of the moment’ styles such as work-from-homewear as opposed to just seasonal. Retailers are introducing much more interactive product listings, with 360-degree visuals, more intuitive size guide suggestions and close-ups of materials in absence of real models or seeing a product in-store.

Pre- and post-purchase, users are more likely to be met with several notices around delivery times and manage expectations throughout. Just because we’re dealing with a very serious matter, I believe brands shouldn’t shy away too much from their tone of voice. Take Paperchase for example; rather than going with the traditional ‘COVID-19 update’ as their leading header copy, they’ve opted for ‘We’re working our socks off’, before delving deeper into delivery timelines.

Adapting to survive

Ultimately, retailers and retail marketers have a monumental task on their hands. On the one hand, having to be fully focused on the here and now, whilst remaining agile enough to be reactive; on the other hand, have one eye also firmly on the future. Knowing what steps to take really depends on which part of the retail industry you sit in.

Here are 4 quick wins you can implement to help with your retail marketing now and in the future:

#1 If you find yourself in a situation where marketing budgets are being cut, ensure at the very least you optimise your spending to maintain brand recognition.  

#2 If your marketing analytics is telling you people aren’t converting and you’ve tried nurturing the best you can, think about ways to create ‘favourites’, ‘loved’ or ‘saved’ products. A wishlist can keep them engaged with your products even if they’re on the cusp of leaving the site.

#3 Look for cost-effective ways to diversify and work to understand people’s pain points in order to find new product opportunities. One great example of this is Iceland, who brought out several frozen alternatives to McDonald’s, Nandos and other well-loved takeaways using existing products. It didn’t take much to pull this off and it gave the chain an entirely new advantage over their competitors.

#4 Seek out insight on how your competitors are responding to the crisis. Anywhere they are holding back or making cuts could be an opportunity for you to capitalise on – should you be in a position to do so. It was recently revealed that Amazon is trying to limit purchases and as a result has greatly reduced ad spend on Google, paving the way for many others to take the spotlight.

What’s next for retail marketing?

If I had a magic 8 ball, it would most certainly say ‘Ask again later’. Much of the future of the retail industry lies very much in the hands of our governments, and the timely steps they take to help ease retailers back into the new normal. In the meantime, those who are in a position to, can market tactfully through the madness, all the while being proactive and reactive to the changing needs of consumers and the world around us. 

For that reason, I’m incredibly proud that BAM by Papirfly™ is helping retail brands around the world still deliver high-quality, studio-standard assets to get their key messages out during this crucial time.

Employer brand

Can you keep company culture alive with a remote workforce?

Papirfly
8 minutes read

For many businesses, COVID-19 has dramatically altered the way they work now and moving forward. Nowhere is that truer than how it has accelerated how companies embrace and adapt to remote working.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 49.2% of employed adults in the UK were working from home as of April 2020. While the trend towards remote working has been recognised for several years now, this rapid shift has forced organisations to think on their feet about many factors, like:

  • Do they have the technology in place to support efficient remote working?
  • How do we support the wellbeing of employees that need to work remotely?
  • How are we going to maintain communications with our customers and other audiences?
  • What will this mean for our company culture?

That final question is what we are focusing this article around. Many organisations are understandably fearful about employees feeling abandoned or disconnected from their employer brand if they aren’t in their traditional workplace.

They may have invested in brilliant workplace bonuses like cafe areas, beanbags, ping pong tables, exercise machines and more to encourage a positive, fun atmosphere and engage their employees. Without these cool perks, how will existing staff and new hires feel part of the team and understand its core values?

Well, in this article we will explain why maintaining company culture is possible while working remotely, and why it might in fact enhance the strength of this over time.

What is company culture and why is it so important?

As great as a table football set or an in-house cinema can be to make work a more interesting place to be, those that think they represent the essence of company culture are going about things all wrong. They may make people happy in the short term and even tie in with your company values, but they are no more than “nice-to-haves”.

In reality, your company culture is the mission, visions and values that underline who your brand is and what it stands for. It represents the attitudes and behaviours that team members demonstrate on a day-to-day basis.

For instance, are you a company that’s rooted in tradition and your local community, or one that’s laser-focused on the future and globalisation? 

Do you promote a formal, hierarchical style of management, or a more free-flowing approach to employee participation?

Do you push a practice of 9-to-5 office hours from Monday to Friday, or do you favour a flexible approach to working times?

The great thing about company culture is that there is no wrong answer to these questions, as it will depend on what values you uphold within your organisation. The key is building this culture and getting employees to buy into it, as this will ensure they’re connected to your brand and that everyone is working towards a shared goal – the continued progression of the company.

You may be thinking “that sounds great, but what impact does a strong company culture actually have in practice?”. We’re glad you asked, as the all-encompassing nature of company culture impacts an organisation in many ways, including:

  • Recruitment – 77% of job seekers will assess a company’s culture before applying there
  • Retaining staff – 63% of employees say company culture is one of the main reasons for staying in a job
  • Productivity – Employees satisfied with their workplace culture are 12% more productive than unhappy employees
  • Stronger leadership – Employees are 23% more likely to stay with a company if their manager clearly explains their role and responsibilities
  • Revenue growth – Companies with strong cultures can see revenue growth of up to 682% compared to just 166% for those without

Now, establishing and reinforcing company culture is easier said than done, and it definitely takes more than setting up a slide in the middle of your building.

Is remote working actually great for company culture?

We believe this forced transition to remote working, while problematic in the short term for many, could actually inspire more companies to take a well-thought-out approach to developing their company culture.

In a communal office environment, for instance, it is easy to fall into the trap that many have in the past that perks = culture. A pool table, a branded poster down the main corridor and after-work drinks on a Friday and the job’s done, right? Wrong.

By adding the additional challenge of keeping a remote workforce engaged and up-to-speed with the values that the company upholds above all others, particularly if it involves bringing a completely fresh face into the mix, it forces those responsible for company culture to think more clearly.

There’s no assumption that it will develop naturally over time or a few incentives will do the work for them. They enter the process with their eyes wide open. So, if you find yourself in this situation, what steps can you take to keep your culture strong while your team is spread out?

How to inspire company culture across your remote workforce

Define and document your core values

Firstly, it’s important that you take the time to assess the values that make your company what it is. What do you stand for as a brand? What do you aspire towards? How do you look to make life a better place for your customers and the wider world?

Clarity on these is essential – if you’re fuzzy on what your company’s core values truly are, then that confusion will trickle down to your employees, making it likely they feel disconnected or disengaged with your brand. Once you have nailed down your values, these can be communicated internally to help bring the team together under a common goal.

And remember, when you have your values, put them somewhere virtually so your team can access them and understand them. That’s a huge factor in why BAM by Papirfly™ incorporates an “Educate” section, where our clients can house critical documents like their core values to ensure that your team members, even those working remotely, know what your brand stands for and will present that through your marketing collateral.

Plus, your values may change over time as the world around us evolves, so make sure that you review them annually or quarterly.

Make your values central to internal and external communications

Once you have your core values cemented, instilling them throughout your remote team takes more than just slapping it on a poster or a page on your website. They need to become inherent to how you communicate and operate as a team, and be a constant presence within your organisation.

How can this be achieved? Techniques we’d recommend include:

  • Institute a company-wide newsletter to share big wins and exciting news within the company
  • Establish designated channels in your chat systems like Slack or Google Hangouts to encourage communication among remote workers
  • Celebrate achievements through your social media platforms as well as through internal channels
  • Ensure all team members utilise the same communication channels when working, rather than being left to their own devices
  • Hold frequent performance reviews and one-to-one meetings with team members to discuss their work and reinforce your values
  • Host creative learning courses or training sessions with remote workers built around company values
  • Guide staff through new processes virtually so they can work autonomously and capably without the need for micromanagement

By instilling each of these communication points with your core values, they become a more constant presence for your employees, connecting them with your overarching culture.

Showcase your company history during onboarding

As part of the onboarding process for new employees, or even as a recurring meeting or session with all members of your team, present a timeline of your company and how your connection to your values and visions has contributed to your progression.

This historical example will not only present tangible examples of why your company believes in its approach, ensuring your employees don’t consider your brand as “all talk, no action”, but it will help new recruits feel like they’ve been part of your organisation for a while by giving them a strong sense of where you’ve come from.

The sooner you can get recruits invested in company culture and motivated by your brand vision, the faster they will be delivering top-quality work for your cause.

Encourage video conferencing for more than meetings

Programs like Zoom, Skype and Google Hangouts have enjoyed a boom during 2020, as more and more businesses begin to rely on them to keep in touch with employees, customers and more in this challenging environment.

But, to support your company culture further, try and find ways to harness this technology for more than meetings and training sessions. Just because remote workers can’t all gather around the water cooler for a chat doesn’t mean the same effect can’t be achieved virtually. In fact, it’s better, because now you can schedule these well in advance!

Dedicate time during your working day or after work to informal discussions and catch-ups among your workforce. This will not only familiarise them with their co-workers, build stronger relationships and ensure people don’t become isolated, but it will also help them let their hair down.

Take these informal chats further by hosting gaming sessions, movie nights and more through your video conferencing technology.

Blend core values into company workflows

As noted earlier, it’s crucial that your core values are integrated into working practices, and recognised when they are upheld among your team members. Discuss these values when interviewing or onboarding new recruits and during team training sessions, and then celebrate it when an employee does something, whether it’s related to work or not, that embodies your core values.

For example, if one of your key values is being environmentally conscious, if somebody does a fun run that raises a lot of money to save the rainforests, then shout it out. By identifying and rewarding people who are engaged with your company culture, it makes them feel more connected with the team and encourages others to follow that example.

Bring the team together from time to time

With lockdown restrictions coming to a halt, take some time to plan out company-wide retreats and get-togethers than bring your remote workers together. 

There is sometimes really no substitute for face-to-face interaction, but if your team typically is spread far apart, it makes these events even more meaningful and effective than if it was just spending time with the people you’re sharing a building with 8 hours a day.

These events can concentrate on team bonding and building that united front without the pressure of work, which will then translate into employees being more connected with their co-workers and more empowered in their own working environment.

5 brands nailing company culture while working remotely

American Express

As part of their commitment to Relationship Care, employees at American Express regularly receive coaching on how to connect with their customers and inspire loyalty. In this new age of remote working, this is now achieved by side-to-side virtual training as opposed to in-person coaching.

Buffer

Buffer, which has a 100% remote workforce, maintains a strong, unified culture by frequently asking for team feedback and suggestions through surveys, and by establishing a People Team that is dedicated to employee engagement and experimenting with new approaches to building company culture.

ICUC Social

ICUC Social’s commitment to developing a capable remote working culture incorporates initiatives like Happy Hour Fridays on Google Hangouts, cluster parties in various cities for their global teams, and a Sherpa Program, where someone is assigned to closely support and guide new recruits for their first month in the role.

SitePen

Activities that have helped boost employee engagement at SitePen include all-hands meetings on Monday mornings, an array of project chatrooms where remote workers can discuss an array of topics, and frequent one-on-one mentoring catch-ups.

Toptal

In order to promote the company’s value of celebrating travel and adventure, Toptal will often encourage team members in meetings to discuss where they’re working from, and this will often lead to discussions about exotic locations and traditions. They also regularly host team meetups in a variety of places worldwide.

Communicating your company culture

We hope that this has been an eye-opening examination of how company culture can thrive in a remote working landscape. While the creature comforts of on-location working have their undoubted benefits for boosting employee engagement, we feel the challenge presented by this reliance on virtual technology will encourage organisations to think more about what they can do to cement and express their values throughout their workforce.

At Papirfly, we are supporting our clients’ efforts to achieve this united front through our all-encompassing BAM portal. Through our software’s dedicated Educate section, we ensure all guidelines, training videos, assets and more are available to team members across the globe, so everybody is conscious of who their brand is and what they stand for.

To learn more about this and the wide-reaching benefits of BAM by Papirfly™, get in touch with our team or arrange your first-hand demo.

Table of contents:

  1. What is company culture and why is it so important?
  2. Is remote working actually great for company culture?
  3. How to inspire company culture across your remote workforce
  4. 5 brands nailing company culture while working remotely
  5. Communicating your company culture
Marketing

21 ideas for unmissable video marketing

Papirfly
7 minutes read

There’s no denying the power of video in today’s marketing landscape. Over 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and it is estimated that by 2022, online video content will make up 82% of global consumer traffic on the Internet.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg:

  • 240 exabytes (where one exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes) of video content is expected to be consumed worldwide each month in 2022
  • The average user is predicted to spend approximately 100 minutes a day watching online videos by 2021
  • Mobile video consumption increases by 100% each year
  • There is believed to be around 1 million minutes of video crossing the Internet every second

Of course, as we highlighted in our article on optimising video marketing, the content you use should always lean on the values that underline your company, the nature of your products and services, and the tone that your audiences expect from you as a brand. 

But knowing what ideas are out there and experimenting with them is key to discovering which connects with your users and helps you reap the full benefits video can have on building brand awareness and effective lead generation.

Below, we’ve listed 21 standout video marketing ideas that have been proven to help B2C businesses capture clicks and keep their customers’ eyes on their brand.

21 ideas to supercharge your B2C video content

#1 – Share your brand story

First, use video to shout about who your brand is, where you came from, and what you stand for. A great brand positioning video should emphasise your core values and how your company looks to make life better for its customers. This helps viewers visually understand the personality of your brand and, if they feel this connects with their own values and ideals, will compel them to learn more about your company and encourage them to get on board.

#2 – Product demonstrations and explainers

It’s good to tell customers how your products will benefit them through your website or in brochures, but it’s even better to show them first-hand. Product demonstrations and explainers allow viewers to clearly visualise how your offerings work, show transparency and support their understanding of them in a way that writing can’t always communicate.

72% of customers would prefer to learn about a product or service via a video (Hubspot)

#3 – Customer reviews and testimonials

Another way to help consumers to understand your products and the benefits they offer is by showing them other customers that have already experienced them. With 88% of consumers claiming that reviews influence their purchasing decisions, highlighting genuine, authentic stories of people who have used and enjoyed your products will inspire trust in viewers that they will also enjoy a positive experience with them.

#4 – User-generated content

As well as reviews, encourage your audience to get involved in your marketing by harnessing their own footage of customers using your products or services. Of course, it is important to secure their permission before pursuing this, but once you receive this, sharing user-generated content on your social feeds is another powerful indicator that people benefit from your offering, which may then inspire others to feel them too.

#5 – Thought leadership pieces

Modern B2C companies are expected to be more than just product manufacturers and sellers. By sharing your expertise in thought leadership pieces, be these individual interviews or roundtable discussions, you provide your viewers with knowledge and insight that they may not have had before. This increases their understanding of your brand and industry, and might encourage them to learn more through your other channels.

#6 – Live Q&As and webinars

Hosting live Q&As and webinars on a topic that’s important to your brand and your customers is a great way to inspire real-time engagement. These types of videos make the audience part of the process, encouraging them to ask burning questions about the topic at hand to improve their understanding. By fulfilling this and sharing your expertise in the selected area, this increases consumers’ trust in your brand.

The live streaming industry is predicted to be worth over $70 billion by 2021 (Neil Patel)

#7 – Answering FAQs

If you don’t have the capacity to live stream at the moment, then why not make pre-recorded videos answering some of your FAQs? Many websites have static versions of these up on their website. This makes the process more interactive and helps viewers understand your company more and gives them clarity over common issues that you’ve identified among your communities.

#8 – Take nuggets from your blog posts

When you produce a blog post, are you making the most of the content within it? Rather than having it sit on your website, take snippets and key points from it and put them into a short video. Not only will this provide useful information to viewers on the topic of the blog post, but these can be used to link people to the article itself to learn more, boosting the traffic to your website.

#9 – Video lists

Lists typically attract a lot of interest. Constructing a video around ranking particular products in your industry or on the various ways that your customers can use your products in less-than-ordinary ways can be the essence of a quirky, engaging video across your various feeds.

#10 – Behind-the-scenes and making-of videos

A good source of video content could be giving consumers a glimpse into how your products are constructed, or an insight into the development process that was behind the creation of a new product or innovation. This will allow you to explain in detail the reasoning behind your products and how you produce them, which may be of interest to viewers and help them identify your values and personality through these backstage clips.

#11 – Vlogs

Vlogs are among the most popular forms of Internet videos, with hundreds of YouTubers garnering millions of views built around their own personalities and adventures. While it may take a while to reach the status of a Daniel Howell or Lily Singh, having a face for your brand who highlights their role on a day-to-day basis can bring people closer to your brand and give them an understanding of the characters within your team.

87% of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool (Wyzowl)

#12 – How-to guides and tutorials

Another heavily utilised form of video marketing revolves around tutorials. This doesn’t have to be specific to your line of products, but simply videos connected to your brand values and industry that resolve common pain points among your audience. For instance, if you represented a toy company a how-to guide could present ways to create games for children using household items.

#13 – Whiteboard videos

Popularised by the Whiteboard Friday videos at Moz, whiteboard videos allow industry experts to guide consumers through more complex concepts in a straightforward visual way. This can be powerful in educating consumers about the finer details of your products, or to explain various topics that your brand is passionate about.

#14 – Economist-style clips

You might have caught some of the engaging videos that The Economist have been pulling together on their social media feeds to explain news stories and trends in an aesthetically pleasing way. While this style is journalistic in nature, it can still be effectively applied to other topics to engage audiences on relevant topics to your brand, which may come across as stale or excessive in a written form.

#15 – Influencer videos and collaborations

Influencer marketing can be a powerful tool as long as both of your audiences sync-up in some form. A company that specialises in fishing equipment might not see much benefit from collaborating with a YouTuber known for their beauty tips (although never say never). Ideas like unboxing videos or influencers incorporating products into their own video concepts can be a win-win for both parties and attract a new audience to your brand.

The average business makes $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing (The Influencer Marketing Hub)

#16 – Mythbusting

There’s a lot of misinformation flowing around the Internet, so why not base a video about busting some of the myths prevalent in your line of work? By using your own expertise and understanding to provide some clarity on a contentious topic, you can present your brand as an authority within your industry and boost the trust your audience has towards you.

#17 – Interviews with employees and industry experts

Harness the expertise and experiences of your team, or take advantage of connections within your industry, to create some truly thought-provoking and compelling interviews. Not only will this demonstrate to viewers that your brand is a thought leader within your industry, but these can also act as enticing recruitment videos – if you demonstrate how learned and satisfied your employees are, top recruits will want a slice of that life as well.

#18 – Parodies and current events videos

While this requires a lot of creativity and thought in a short space of time, the viral potential of a well-crafted parody video or a clip connected with a recent trend or topic can be massive. However, do ensure that this is relevant to your brand or the content is adjusted in a way to make it fit with your core values to ensure it doesn’t feel out of place with what people expect from your brand.

#19 – Timelapse videos

A creative form of video marketing that can express change superbly is timelapse technology. Say you are an interior designer or a furniture storeroom – a timelapse video could illustrate how your team can turn a drab, lifeless environment into a vibrant and attractive one. These types of videos depict the transformative impact of your products and services in a way that worlds or “before/after” imagery can’t always manage.

#20 – Product comparisons

Similarly, use your video content to illustrate the quality and effectiveness of your products over others on your market. This will demonstrate to viewers the unique, additional benefits your offering has over competitors and consequently make them more appealing. Alternatively, you can create similar content with products that aren’t directly connected with your company, but would be relevant to your audiences.

#21 – VR and 360° footage

Especially at a time where movement is limited, VR or 360° videos can immerse a viewer in your brand and the environment you work in. This can be used to provide engaging tours of your offices, create visually stunning product announcements or add a different dimension to demonstrations and company events.

360° video ads result in a 7% higher purchase intent for smartphone users (IPG)

Maximise video content with complete consistency

We hope this has inspired a few ideas of how you can create the most compelling B2C video content for your brand moving forward. The strength of online video is only going to grow year-on-year, and it should now represent an essential element in any content strategy.

However, regardless which of these 21 suggestions you end up experimenting with (or if you come up with completely different concepts), one crucial characteristic you need to demonstrate is consistency.

BAM by Papirfly™ incorporates a beautifully simple video-editing solution that ensures consistent branding and quality output. From the ability to import branded visuals to the start and finish of your content and stylish transitions to weave in-between, to the capacity to add subtitles for your international audiences, we provide the tools that your team needs to make sure your viewers identify your videos with your brand.

For more information about BAM’s video software and its many other features that help companies harness their brand like never before, speak to us today or book your exclusive demo.

Table of contents:

  1. 21 ideas to supercharge your B2C video content
  2. Maximise video content with complete consistency
Marketing

The marketing sales funnel explained

Papirfly
6 minutes read

Think of your marketing funnel like the journey your consumer takes from being totally unfamiliar with your brand, to becoming a customer. The more this journey is nurtured, the more problems you solve for them, the more content they are exposed to – this all helps them to narrow down their purchasing decision so they make it through the end of the sales funnel. 

At each stage, through awareness, consideration and conversion, there are certain marketing activities and mediums that are known to be successful in helping the consumer feel confident and informed. In this article, we will explore this journey in greater detail and the types of strategies you can undertake to nurture your prospects in the most effective way possible…

What does a typical sales funnel look like? 

You will see many variations of this online and in books. Some may even have several more stages than what we have outlined below. But it’s important to remember to keep things simple to begin with, perfect the basics and then you can delve further. Awareness, consideration and conversion are your fundamental layers, so let’s start with those. 

The Awareness Stage

What is it? 

At this point you will have to make an assumption that someone hasn’t interacted with or heard of your brand, product or service. This is where you determine what problem you can solve for them, and what answers you can give them through multi-layered content. 

What you need to know about the prospect at this stage of the marketing sales funnel…

  • They have a problem they don’t know the solution to
  • They need educating on said problem and the solution 
  • Volume of these types of leads is likely to be the highest
  • As they are the least qualified, they hold the least value until nurtured

Types of activity to consider

Optimised blogs 

If you have an SEO team, they will have likely already put content pillars and clusters in place for you. The purpose of having optimised content, rather than content for content’s sake, allow you to capture intent through using terms that people are searching for. Your content can be tailored to provide answers to their burning questions. Though this single interaction will unlikely result in a lead, you will begin to build a relationship with the prospect. 

Sponsored blogs

When you have a very specific audience persona, you can easily identify publications to promote your content on. Having featured or paid-for content gets you in front of the right people very quickly, but can be difficult to sustain if your budget is limited. Publications usually want unique content, so if you’re exploiting one or two angles a month, the story could soon lose its lustre across multiple publications. 

Use the below template as a starting point for your audience personas. These may evolve over time, but getting the basics established will hold you in good stead for all the activity you engage with moving forward. 

Advertising 

Whichever medium you pursue to get people into the sales funnel, there are now tons of metrics available to help you hone in on the demographics available to you. While out of home advertising can’t always be as sufficiently measured as digital, it can be very effective when strategically coupled with other activity. 

Digital advertising, whether through banner networks, social media, retargeting or search engine ads, can give you a breadth of insight and measurement when set up correctly. You can get in front of people whose digital profile matches the demographics of your audience or capture intent through search engines. 

Social media

Using social media advertising to get new prospects into the sales funnel can be highly targeted and highly effective. Organic social is great once you have established a following, but it is often much harder to get the reach you need without investing in paid promotion alongside it. 

By promoting a gated resource you can capture email addresses and a few key details to bring new people into the marketing sales funnel. The subject of the gated asset can help you qualify that they will find your product or service relevant. This could take the form of a whitepaper, guide, e-book, checklist or a suite of educational videos. 

How well does this activity work?

These methods are used in the initial stages of raising awareness, getting in front of consumers and highlighting a way for them to solve a problem. The key to building this initial layer of trust is that the messaging isn’t trying to sell a product or service, but to provide education, be helpful and build an initial rapport with the prospect.

The Consideration Stage 

What is it?

This is where your prospect has been exposed to content that has opened their eyes to their issue in more detail, and potentially shown them some solutions and information. They are now aware and actively seeking more information about companies that can help them. 

While you will continue to serve them content, you will now take it to the next level and differentiate your brand from the competition. Any doubt they may have you should be ready to quash, any question should be answered and every USP should be highlighted. 

What you need to know about the prospect at this stage of the marketing sales funnel…

  • Prospect recognises their problem and need for a solution
  • Explores options and seeks more in-depth information
  • Consider them to be ‘shopping around’ 

Types of activity to consider 

Webinars

Hosting webinars has become increasingly popular in the last couple of years, and been made ever-more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting your webinar on social media to new prospects, or to those in the middle of the sales funnel through email marketing, will showcase your brand as an authority on a specific topic, humanise your company and encourage re-engagement. 

You may choose a platform that only streams to your prospects, and while a two-way conversation isn’t always viable, you should at the very least offer the opportunity for prospects to submit questions in advance or in an accompanying chat manned by a person other than the webinar host. 

Case studies

While reviews are often one of the first things a prospect will check up on, this alone isn’t always enough to convince them to invest. Having well-written case studies for clients across multiple or specific industries can start to demystify any unknowns and help the prospect see how a real-world example can unfold. 

Email nurturing 

This is one of the most important strands to hone in on during the consideration stage of the sales funnel. When you have the verified email address of a potential lead, there are countless possibilities. Your email nurture journeys could range from generic or tailored newsletters, through to product update emails and information triggered by certain actions on your website.

We all lead busy lives and should your brand be at the back of an individual’s mind, a considered email in their inbox could bring you right back to the fore. 

How well does this activity work?

Each of these holds merit in getting a prospect through the middle stage of the marketing sales funnel. Whether used collectively or in isolation, they each work to establish your brand as a real contender for the prospect when making a purchase decision. 

The Conversion Stage 

What is it? 

At this stage, you have the prospect firmly hooked, you just need to delve that bit further and provide information that’s tailored completely to their needs and provide a point of interaction. 

What you need to know about the prospect at this stage of the marketing sales funnel…

  • Actively interested in your product or service
  • Qualified and nurtured enough for your sales team to start engaging
  • Potentially ready to buy 
  • Highest in value 

Types of activity to consider 

Trials and demos 

If you have a digital product, you can book a dedicated time slot to go over all the features, functions and walkthroughs with an interested prospect. This may be one-to-one or with a few stakeholders at their company. They will get the opportunity to ask more in-depth questions, and your team will be able to provide tailored answers unique to their situation or industry. 

Quotes

Sometimes the only barrier between a prospect and a sale is getting an accurate price. If your pricing is fixed or determined by a set amount of factors, you can enable prospects to generate their own quote online, while inputting additional information. Alternatively, you may offer a bespoke consultation with the final outcome of a quote or proposal. 

Discounts/sales prompts 

If you have access to data that shows your prospect’s behaviour, such as items sitting dormant in their online basket, it being emptied, filled again and then abandoned, you may choose to trigger a discount or promotion that will encourage them to convert. 

Form optimisation

Conduct regular audits of your website forms to make sure there are no barriers to conversion. You can test multiple messages across different call-to-actions, monitor which performs well and adapt others accordingly. 

How well does this activity work?

The good news is that your team will have done the hard bit by getting the prospect to this point of the sales funnel – now it’s over to your sales team (with support from marketing). Ultimately, if your messaging has been accurate and honest to this point, and your product or service lives up to its expectations, you should see your prospect finally convert. 

Beyond the marketing sales funnel 

Once you have turned your prospects into clients, you will need to think about retention and loyalty. These strategies can include ongoing nurture journeys, investing in customer support teams and resources, and rewarding customers with loyalty schemes and discounts.

The landscape of the marketing sales funnel is vast and ever-changing, but with the power of BAM by Papirfly™ you can be proactive and reactive to all of your digital and print marketing needs. 

  • Create an infinite amount of design assets from pre-approved smart templates. 
  • Allow teams anywhere in the world to adapt campaigns specifically for their markets, with dedicated imagery, translations and more. 
  • Centralise your entire company asset library and make it easy for teams to find, share and edit materials anytime, anywhere. 
  • Educate your teams on your brand assets, guidelines and strategy documents such as brand personas, campaign plans and more. 

If you would like to hear more about how BAM can help you nurture every stage of the sales funnel, get in touch today or book a demo.