Category: Business Trends

In 2021, the biggest US beneficiary of the streaming bonanza will be Disney. After a plethora of streaming competitors launched in 2020, Netflix still added a substantial number of subscribers. As impressive as Netflix’s sustained dominance was Disney+’s ability to quickly gain viewers. These developments show there’s room for multiple services to thrive in this fast-growing market.

But no other new US streaming service had a debut like Disney+ did—we estimate that it will reach 72.4 million US monthly viewers in 2020, its first full year in service. We forecast that more than one-fifth of the US population will use Disney+ this year, and in 2024, more than one-third will. So far, other streaming entrants suffered from distribution limitations, confusing branding, or a lack of quality programming. None of these problems have hampered Disney+, which will become the third most popular US streaming service by the end of 2024.

There is still plenty of time for other streamers to gain adoption. But other recent entrants into the streaming wars will struggle to immediately make a dent in the market.

During the pandemic, streaming has been one of few successes for The Walt Disney Co., which has suffered with theme parks and theaters sidelined. The company reorganized its media division to further emphasize streaming. While other media conglomerates are also restructuring their businesses to focus more on streaming, Disney’s pivot is particularly consequential because it operates numerous streamers including Hulu, ESPN+, and its upcoming Star service, named after the India-based media company that Disney acquired. This move will further solidify Disney as a streaming leader alongside stalwarts Netflix and Amazon.

Disney+’s success matters to marketers because it represents streaming services becoming more reliant on subscriptions than on advertising. A massive and growing audience is unreachable with standard video ads, which bolsters other avenues for awareness campaigns such as outstream video and digital outdoor ads. Of course, there is room for both monetization strategies; digital video ad spending is growing, and Disney-controlled Hulu monetizes through ads.

Still, most time spent streaming happens devoid of advertising. The ad-free services Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ account for about half of all time spent with streaming, according to separate studies from Nielsen and Comscore. The other half is split between ad-free services (like Apple TV+), ad-reliant services (like Pluto TV), and hybrid services (like Hulu). When added together, there is a tremendous amount of streaming happening without ads, which is how many users like it. As Disney+ becomes more popular, the share of time spent with ad-supported streaming services will decline further. Marketers will need to take this into account when planning campaigns.

There are two kinds of social marketing: organic and paid. With audience demographics and interests becoming more diverse than ever, paid social marketing is an efficient way to target customers with demographics and interests that align with your business. It’s considered best practice to invest in social marketing at least in the beginning stages of your business, because it helps get the ball rolling. Below are five action steps for a successful paid social marketing campaign.

Decide on a realistic budget

A good marketing campaign yields the highest possible Return On Investment (ROI) or, in marketing terms, Return On Advertising Spend (ROAS). Determine your monthly budget to go towards paid social marketing. How much should you spend on marketing? Generally speaking, small to medium-sized businesses put aside 10 to 15 percent of the earnings for marketing expenses.

The devil is in the details

You should be able to set detailed perimeters, especially if local targeting is integral to your business. How detailed is the audience demographic specifications on the ad platform of your choice? In terms of local targeting, is your ad range specific enough to target only the areas your business covers?

Find out whether you can narrow down the geographic location settings. For example, if you run a dry cleaning business in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, it doesn’t really make sense to include people who live in the Upper East Side in your local targeting.

Similarly, interest targeting alone could lead to a meaningless campaign. For example, if you run a cafe in New York, it serves no purpose for someone who actively interacts with coffee contents but lives in Los Angeles to see your ad.

First determine whether local targeting is essential to your business. If it is, you should be able to specify the target to cover only your primary area of business. You might need granular targeting to make this possible.

Identify who contributes to actual sales

Which segment of your customer demographics contributes to sales the most? Is it men in their twenties or women in their thirties? Does your data show any correlation between sales and customers’ location–urban vs. rural? Demographic analysis is a must to understand the audience and launch a successful paid social campaign.

Choose the right space

Find the optimal advertising media for your business. Is your product or service most popular on Instagram? Instagram requires visual representation of your business, which means you need to have resources to design images. Choose the right media with your business’s appeal point and resource allocation in mind. For instance, Facebook and Instagram require a lot of graphic designing and occasional videoediting. If you’re unsure where to start, social listening tools like Hootsuite is a great place to get to know the different social networks.

Measure success with social media KPIs

This is especially relevant to Online to Offline (O2O) businesses. Even with high impressions, engagement and click-through rate of an ad, there’s no way to find out just how much the ad has contributed to actual store visits and sales. The only way to find out the efficiency of social ads is to ask the visitors how they heard about your business, especially whether they’ve heard from your paid advertising source. Identify the percentage of sales that comes from paid social marketing so that you can set your KPIs accordingly.

Paid Social Marketing: Pro Tips for Small Businesses [Entrepreneur]

Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has rocked the economy. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlookpredicts the cumulative loss to the world’s GDP from 2020 to 2021 will be approximately $9 trillion. That’s more than the combined economies of Germany and Japan.

But the crisis has disrupted more than global markets; it has changed peoples’ lives, needs, priorities and spending behaviors. Approximately 40 per cent of Australians are feeling financially insecure, and as a result, professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that household consumption will decline by $37.9 billion within the next year.

In harsh economic conditions, consumers become more discerning with where and how they spend their money—for businesses, this creates a new set of challenges.
Customer-centricity is a term that has been used since the 1960s, but it has never been more relevant than in today’s business landscape. In such extreme environments, customers want more than the best offering or the lowest price; they seek dependability, confidence and trust in the brands they choose to do business with.

The end goal for a customer-centric business is customer loyalty. A dedicated customer base is key to surviving disruption, as they will continue to depend on your services even in challenging climates. But true customer-centricity is no set-and-forget solution. Retaining loyalty is about adapting your offering depending on the changing needs of your customers, and in some instances, knowing what they want before they do. This is where the modern reality of customer-centricity starts to connect operations with experiences, creating new dimensions of customer excellence.

So how are businesses expected to predict or adjust to evolving customer expectations? It begins with understanding how your company operates and what you need to change to keep your loyal customer base as close as possible.

Here are three ways businesses can adapt to changing customer relationships, in light of COVID-19.

Let growth goals take a backseat

If growing your customer base is a priority for your business right now, take a moment to reflect on the long-term cost of that growth, both reputation-wise and financially, to determine whether it is a sustainable pathway.

Few businesses have been left untouched, if not unscathed, by COVID-19. Consequently, many companies have been forced to refocus their priorities, resources and goals to survive the crisis. If your business has not considered the immediate or future economic impact of the pandemic and how it could affect your organization, you need to start doing so now.

Part of evaluating this impact is looking at factors you can control, or at the very least maintain, to ensure you keep as close to ‘business as usual’ as possible. A central element of your survival strategy is maintaining your existing customer base.

Focusing on customer acquisition to the detriment of your existing ones can create a funnel effect, whereby a stream of new business comes in, while just as many customers go elsewhere. This can force companies into a spiral of deeper and deeper discounts to attract new consumers to their pool, which eventually runs dry along with their revenue streams.

Research by Forrester shows that new customers can cost five times more to convert than existing customers, indicating that it is much easier to expand and build-on existing loyalty than it is to tap into new client bases, especially during tough times.

Do not fear missing out on opportunities for growth; rather, consider this crisis a chance to cement the fundamental processes and market share that make your business scalable.

Always remember; there is no point investing in your business’ continuity if you have no customers on the other side.

Focus on operational excellence, but keep it customer-centric

Historically, a continuous improvement mindset revolved around things such as standardized costs, stable operations and meeting compliance expectations. While these are all critical elements of running a business, somewhere along the way, these companies lost their grip on the bigger picture and realized their product was no longer relevant to the customer.

Operational excellence is important, but carrying out a process 10 per cent better than the previous year does not matter if you miss the mark with your customer base.

More recently, businesses have started tapping into a different mindset that sees the customer experience translated throughout an end-to-end process. For truly customer-centric organizations, every decision and ambition has a customer-focused outcome in mind, be that improved experience or lasting sentiment.

Continuous improvement no longer exists in an echo-chamber; the convergence of process excellence and customer experience is the new north star, and this mindset is embedded into the very structure of a business and its team.

Data-driven for precision 

In a post-pandemic era, digital marketing and social communication channels are the name of the game, and when used correctly, can offer more specific insights into your customers’ behaviors.

Utilizing customer data can be as simple as surveying your existing customer base to gain actionable insights. The more data you have, the more accurate these insights will be.

Consider every digital touchpoint of your customers’ experiences as though they are leaving behind a fingerprint, containing a goldmine of DNA or data that helps you better understand their needs, expectations and concerns.

To develop a comprehensive customer excellence picture, it helps to combine each touchpoint into what is known as journey maps; a high-level, intuitively readable diagram that enables you to view the user experience from an outside-in perspective—across all your personas. The journey visualization will increasingly identify areas for persona-centric process improvement, while empowering business mapping, change, and operational transformation.

Keeping your finger on the customers’ pulse means you are on the front foot when it comes to evolving patterns of behavior. Immediate access to data-driven insights allow you to adapt your processes and keep customers’ satisfied, even in rapidly changing environments, boosting loyalty and retention rates.

Using these adaptations, businesses can come out of this crisis with the right fundamentals in place—rather than a set of lowest common denominators that damage your brand in the long term.

3 Ways Customer Relationships Will Change Forever In Light Of COVID-19 [Entreprenuer]

Social distancing. Telemedicine. Self-quarantine. These are all words that at the start of 2020 weren’t part of our vocabulary, but several months into the new decade we are all hearing and using them daily. There is no denying that the coronavirusoutbreak has dramatically changed just about every facet of just about every person’s life around the world.

From a business perspective, the stock market saw its largest one day loss and largest one day gain in history. The U.S. saw the largest job-loss report ever. We are in uncharted waters, and how long we will remain in them remains uncertain. However, there is one thing that we all know, and that is that this outbreak will change the lives of everyone for years or decades to come. Nearly 20 years after 9/11, enhanced airport security, no-fly lists and counterterrorism efforts are still the norm. The same will be true of the COVID-19 aftermath. Is your business ready for the five largest macro trends we are about to see?

1. The rise of enhanced websites and digital tools

Many nonessential businesses — including things like retail stores, hair salons, warehouses, factories and offices — had their brick-and-mortar locations offices closed and did not have the technical tools to survive with their physical locations shut down.

Our agency has seen a tremendous increase in businesses reaching out to us ready to make the leap into digital. It’s critical for businesses to be able to not just survive but thrive through enhanced websites and digital tools to serve their customers. Things like e-commerce in industries that never utilized e-commerce before, advanced product configurations, chatbots and mobile applications are in greater demand than ever as small- and medium-size businesses join in the new decade’s technologyrevolution.

These new tools are helping businesses stay afloat during the virus outbreak and will be a macro-trend that becomes even more important as social distancing becomes commonplace practice — not just for this outbreak but for potential future outbreaks as well.

2. Cybersecurity concerns take center stage

Cybersecurity is already an important topic to large businesses, and with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, California‘s Consumer Privacy Act and other privacy laws, as well as countless news stories about the cost and impact of data breaches, it is something smaller businesses are being forced to confront head on. With the surge in employees working remotely during the virus outbreak, we have seen more and more data breaches and cyberattacks.

Employees using unsecured infrastructure and third-party tools are two of the leading causes of potential breaches. Combine this with data storage and access practices that violate privacy laws — for example, telemedicine on non-HIPAA-compliant platforms — and suddenly the need for secure solutions takes center stage.

Additionally, during this vulnerable time, we have seen an increase in overseas cyberattacks on many of our clients’ websites. Things like brute force attacks, denial of service attacks and other types of attempted hacks have increased, and the need for keeping website and web servers updated and secure is of utmost importance. More businesses will be forced to invest in technology that is secure, scalable, accessibly remotely and follows the onslaught of new data privacy and security regulations.

3. An increase in virtual meetings

The tremendous increase in virtual meetings is a trend we predict will be here to stay. Though there is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting and handshake, for the next few years we anticipate the trend of virtual meetings to continue. And this won’t just apply to the traditional business world, it will apply to many other aspects of our lives — for example, virtually meeting with your doctor, therapist, banker and even hair stylist for a consultation. This will be a tremendous cost and time savings to all parties involved. This is a trend that already started prior to the virus outbreak and will only become more amplified as we continue in this new decade. Preparing for this trend goes far beyond having a virtual meeting space and software. Things like digital brochures, digital business cards, tutorial videos and enhanced website information will all follow in this trend and become necessities as businesses find it more difficult to physically hand materials to their customers.

4. Increased control in expenses

With the unprecedented business shutdown across America, businesses will be increasingly looking at ways to have a greater degree of control over their expenses. These will include businesses requesting shorter contract durations, emergency clauses and provisions in agreements, ways to have a more easily scalable workforce utilizing temporary workers and temporary agencies, and an overall desire to lower expenses, especially recurring expenses.

We have witnessed firsthand nearly every client of ours express the need to reduce expenses, not just as a result of the virus but also as a practice they want to continue into the near future. While this is a good business practice regardless, the pain felt during this economic downturn will create scars that will likely last years into the future.

5. Even more remote employees

Lastly, with the previous four trends is going to come the fifth — an even larger shift to remote employees. Many businesses that fought the trend of employees working remote are now realizing that in being forced to shut down their offices, remote employees are still efficient, effective, economical, and something millennials and Generation Z demand.

With more remote employees comes the increased need for all of the first four points mentioned. This trend is something that started over a decade ago, but it will continue to be amplified in this new decade and following the COVID-19 outbreak.

These trends will be relevant not just in 2020, but likely well beyond. Making decisions and positioning your company now for these changes in the business world will make sure your business is ready and at the forefront of the new remote, digital technology revolution.

5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for the Post-Coronavirus Business World [Entrepreneur]

Sustainability is always on our minds here at Salesforce — but what about the rest of our community? Recently Salesforce Research surveyed 1,300+ Dreamforce attendees to find out.

We learned that employees of small and medium businesses (SMBs) feel strongly about their employers’ sustainability practices: 75% of respondents from companies with 250 or less employees say corporate sustainability is a moral imperative.* On the flip side, SMBs are far less likely than larger companies to have an actual sustainability program or strategy: While 69% of respondents at companies with over 1,000 employees said their company had a sustainability program or plan, only 37% at companies with 250 or less employees said the same.* That’s a major gap!

You don’t have to be a large enterprise to practice sustainability. SMBs can certainly make a difference when it comes to helping the planet (99.9% of U.S. businesses are small businesses, after all) and it starts with creating a sustainability plan to guide your operations. Whether you’re a leader looking to improve your earth-friendly efforts or an employee looking to motivate your team, here are five steps to help you create a sustainability plan for your SMB.

Step 1: Identify a sustainability leader

Earth-friendly initiatives are often left to employees to organize. Give yours a fighting chance by recognizing a sustainability leader or green captain who’ll spearhead the efforts. This is a tactical role, a point person who will handle the day-to-day responsibilities, build the strategy, and track the results. As your company grows, you can supplement your green captain with a whole green team. After all, more people means more impact.

Step 2: Secure an executive sponsor

It’s wise to gather your squad before you kick off. That includes finding an executive sponsor who can make sure your efforts are aligned with company priorities, garner support from other executives, and offer ongoing direction as needed. While your green captain focuses on ideas and execution, the executive sponsor is much more strategic in nature. Their influence will help you secure the people, time, and budget necessary to build a successful program.

Step 3: Look at your current reality

As with any goal, it’s necessary to determine your baseline so you can figure out where you want to be. Measure everything you can.  How much energy is your company consuming now? Is it coming from renewable sources? How many disposable cups does your office go through in a month? How big is your carbon footprint? The more areas you can measure and details you can add, the easier it will be to demonstrate the need for a formal program and identify opportunities for improvement.

Step 4: Create a vision and set your goals

Once you understand where your company is now, you can start designing a path forward. That means it’s time to define your mission, outline your vision, and set goals.

• What do you hope to achieve with a sustainability program?
• How can your company or product be used for sustainable development?
• What key metrics can you measure and improve upon?
• What will success look like?

Step 5: Strategize and take action

Goals and mission in hand, now’s the time to strategize on how you can use company resources more efficiently and brainstorm initiatives to help you achieve your goals. As you go, consider potential impact, costs, and degree of difficulty. Assign a leader to each initiative you plan; this increases accountability and helps keep the initiative on track. Be sure to define metrics for success and set a finite time period to assess your progress.

No effort is too small

Every sustainability journey has to start somewhere; let yours be here. Begin with a few simple things, and then move on to the more complex. You may not think your SMB can have an impact when it comes to climate change, but even tiny changes can make a huge difference.

How to Develop a Sustainability Plan for Your SMB [Smallbiztrends]