The Online Marketer

Mike Hendrikse

Build Business Processes

The Secrets for Successful Remote Work

Creative Control + Connected Communities = Successful Remote Work

Remote work can lead to success or failure for an organisation

Creative Control

Failure for businesses who embark on remote working practices generally occurs when the management feel they have lost control.
 
Abdication vs delegation results. Unclear measurement criteria and loss of trust between team members can occur.
 
Team members do not get a sense of how they fit into the picture and how their efforts work towards common goals.
 
Managers that are disconnected from their team members or who do not have a sense of how a project is advancing, leaning towards the “next best thing” mentality. This is a common knee jerk reaction. 
 
Creative control allows for better co-operation and communication. Managers are always on top of projects and understand where bottlenecks are so they can reallocate resources.
 
This is a very empowering situation to be in.
 
Organisations need tools and skills to undertake successful remote work.

Remote work is motivating

I don’t think there is a single remote worker who misses the twice daily commute.
 
Every remote worker appreciates the extra time gained as well as the freedom to schedule their productive hours and activities.
 
I don’t think there is a single employer who doesn’t enjoy the lower operating costs of  having a remote working team.
 
Remote working practices should be a win win situation.
 
I’ve been working remotely for over 13 years. This was way before it was popular to do so. Putting together the businesses processes and tools for remote work is what we do best.

Connected Communities

For any business to succeed it’s clients or customers need to believe in them. There needs to be shared aspirations and needs. Businesses who tap into this connection can be unbelievably successful. At the heart of connection and community lies the brand promise of the organisation
 
Take Apple as an example. “Think Different”,
their slogan is a guarantee to see the world differently and simirlarly to inspire their customers to do the same. 
Apple have built a cult community that inspires their members to not only buy across their product range but to buy into their digital products such as  iTunes. iMovies, remote storage.and more. In fact Apple have created an environment that is difficult to leave.
 
The first thing we note about communities is that there is no we and them. The company and their clients are part of the same community, with a shared purpose and belief system.
 
This emotional connection needs to be backed up with  many meaningful points of contact with your community.
 
These points of contact or connections  may be physical meets, display adverts, social media interactions, telephone calls, text messages, video calls and even emails.

Let's Connect

At The Online Marketer we place so much importance on connections that it is our businesses slogan. “Let’s Connect.”  Let’s Connect is the two sided promise we make to our clients and  the inspiration for or clients to connect with their community.tw

Zoho Campaigns

For business’s which have between 10 and hundreds of client’s of clients some tools are available to assist the business teams to maintain these valuable connections. At the Online marketer we use a program called Zoho Campaigns  Most Customer Relationship management Software start with a free plan and Zoho’s is generous. The same can be had by Hubspot and many others. However when your needs become more complex and you need to build automations into your system then the you need to advance to the paid plan. This is where Zoho Campaigns excels because it’s paid plan and functionality is very much cheaper than the other options. Thats’s why we recommend it.
 
People love to do business with those they know and trust. So. a fair proportion of time and effort needs to be built to maintain these connections. The lifetime value of a client (link to youtube video) provides a good measure of how worthwhile this exercise of building connections may be. 

Community

A community is a group of people who subscribe to the same values and beliefs. Communities come in different forms.  Communities are at the heart of purchasing decisions.  You’re either for crypto currencies or against them, a democrat or a conservative, a traditional retail store keeper or an online business or you may see the benefit of amalgamating the two. You’re either an Android or IOS fan. A Bulls or Sharks Fan. Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool. Pirates, Sundowns or Chiefs fan.You maybe for vaccinations or against them. You may be a  Catholic ,Protestant or Atheist. A computer nerd or not. 
 
With these examples you either identify strongly for against and you derive some pleasure or utility for your support.  Your beliefs don’t even need to be based on facts,  but rather on the utility of the belief.
 
I mean we can debate IOS vs Android and both sides have excellent products. Is one actually better than the other. Probably not but I bet you have a strong opinion about it. Is this opinion based on facts or your beliefs?
 
Homo Sapiens differentiate themselves from any other species by their ability to use social cooperation for survival and reproduction. We are the first species to be able to tell stories to draw others to our way of thinking.  Effectively this means that successful people are in fact powerful sorcerers as apposed to those people whose abilities are less honed.
 
The strongest organisations are those that are able to build strong communities based on similar beliefs.
 
At the base of building communities is the ability to create your story and effectively convince others that it has value for their purposes. That’s what makes a great business.  This process depends on you being able to effectively connect with your community.
 
AgileCrm is a tool to help you maintain this connection.
 
We have been building communications journeys based on CRM’s for over 13 years. Each communication journey has a goal. Someone to connect with, someone to tell a story to. Someone to make excited about the community.
 
Knowing how to do this is a scarce skill. But we can help you to connect.
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Digitally First - Physically Enhanced

The Online Business Model has usurped the Physical Business Presence as the primary business presence. Physical businesses now support the online versions rather than the other way around.

This transition to Digital First approaches has been fraught with difficulty but has been terribly exciting. Successful transients are motivated, cost effective and slaying the competition.

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Build business processes to predict success
Digital First

E-Commerce Stores

Naspers reports that Takealot Group Revenue grew by 65% to $606 million in 2020.

"Few topics are worth your precious time. Choose what you pay attention to with great care" - James Clear
There is no doubt that there have been massive shifts in consumer behaviour in the last two years. CoVid induced online shopping has taken away 6,5 billion Rand from brick and mortar shops 
 
Online retail growth has been nothing short of spectacular.  Naspers reports in their March 2021 Takealot Group Annual Results that revenue grew by 65% to $606 million. Yes thats US dollars. (9,6 billion Rand).
 
Now this mainly reflects a shift in consumer spending rather than growth. So that means based on Takealot’s revenue growth alone, some 6,4 billion Rand spending has shifted from brick and mortar traders to Takealot’s online store.
 
That’s before we look at other online retail stores such as Checkers Sixty60 and Pick n Pay’s asap to name a few. Consumers have moved beyond their fear of online ordering.
 
The genie is out of the bottle.
 
This trend will continue.
 
The ramifications are huge.  I’m sure you see dozens of empty shops in your local malls.
 
So what are you doing about this in your retail business?
 
This trend is certainly worth allocating your precious time to and you should be choosing to pay attention to it.
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You may be surprised how little a fully fledged eCommerce site may cost.

Digitally First But Physically Enhanced

The swing to digital businesses should be supported by a physical presence. Even if that physical presence takes a new form.

CoVid induced online shopping takes away 6,5 billion Rand from brick and mortar shops Read More »

Connect with your target market
marketing processes

The Consumer Buying Process Deconstructed

Timing is Everything for the Consumer Buying process

Making a decision to buy something is different depending on what you may be buying. Generally the higher the price ticket the more advanced is the consumer buying process.
It’s easy to decide to buy milk or bread because one doesn’t use much brain power.
 
But buying a motor car, a house or considering home renovations or planning a children’s birthday party all take a little more brain power and sometimes time. Having clarity on what the alternatives are, what the costs involved are, will be factors for the buyer to consider.
 
Some purchases are even dependant on another purchase being successful. One doesn’t order the birthday pony for a toddlers birthday party unless you are able to secure the venue that can handle the pony. Similarly one won’t get a home inspection done until your offer to purchase the property has been accepted, and you may not need the new motor car unless you qualify for the finance.
 
Decisions about the car, the home inspection or the pony will be dependant on other factors. Suspensive conditions if you must.
 
So for sellers of goods and services the key to making the sale is to tailor your pitch to the the stage that the buyer has reached in the buying process. Identifying where the sellers mindset is, is crucial to understanding what information the buyer needs in order to make the sale and improve your conversion rate.
 
Trying to close before the buyers need is properly established is just annoying to the buyer. And providing the buyer with further information when the buyer ready to buy is equally annoying.
 
Sales is a process.
 
There are steps to the consumer buying process.
 
And much of the sales process can be automated.
Learn how our sales funnels can help

Digitally First - Physically Enhanced

The Online Business Model is now the MAIN ACT supporting the physical business presence. Transitioning to this new reality has been fraught with difficulty but terribly exciting. Successful transients are alive with possibilities…

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The Consumer Buying Process Deconstructed Read More »

Build business processes to predict success, Content Creation
Online Academies

Why do online academies make good business sense

Remote learning is challenging

Today I sat in on an online meeting where the manager was venting about complacency within his team . His concern was that team members were not following prescribed procedures and using online resources.

It was evident that he felt that team members had not taken the time and effort to absorb critical information that enabled them to produce outputs that were up to the companies standard.

The managers frustration stemmed from his commitment to create supporting information and training together with online resources to allow his team to shine. But the team had not made the effort to assimilate and apply the information. 

This training by and large happened online in the weekly team meeting. Of course a lot of information was imparted and some of the team members didn’t quite understand or were overwhelmed by the magnitude of info.

You can lead a horse to water but…

Managing an online team has its challenges.  You need to be able to train teams, impart information and of course test for recognition. This is easily accomplished when team members are in close proximity. One only has to ask questions in a one on one situation that will quickly show if the team member has grasped the critical information. 

But when dealing with remote workers this is not always the case. It’s an art and a skill to get remote workers to participate in zoom meetings and it is very difficult and time consuming to test if team members have taken in the information. It also van make for a boring meeting for other team members who grasp the information more easily.

Thats why an online academy is so essential.

Team training can easily be created. Recording a zoom meeting will create content for a training module. This video can be uploaded to an online academy and a quick quiz about the subject matter can be created which will allow the manager to determine if the team members have absorbed the information. 

The beauty of this internal academy system is that the training is always available and new team members can be put through an induction process by being directed to watch video 1,3 8 and 22 and answer the related questions to quickly bring them up to speed.  

This resource allows managers and owners to become more efficient and more profitable sooner.

Internal academies are not terribly expensive and all remote teams can benefit. 

What is your organisation doing to promote your remote corporate culture?

Get an estimate of what an e-learning site will cost

The Online Marketer
Online Academies

Digitally First But Physically Enhanced

The swing to digital businesses should be supported by a physical presence. Even if that physical presence takes a new form.

Why do online academies for businesses make sense? Read More »

Connect with your target market
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