The Benefit of Company Culture

Company culture distinguishes the values, goals, and attitudes of the employees that make up a company. When individual and company-wide values align, workers feel more appreciated and valued for the work they do in furthering company objectives. Productivity, profitability, and professionalism trend upwards when company culture is strong and healthy, as their image of success shines amongst competitors, creating a competitive advantage. Company culture has a snowball effect on the health and well-being of a company. As company culture improves, the productivity of happy employees increases, which then increases the financial health and overall profit of the company. A company’s productivity measures the effectiveness and efficiency of employees within the company, directly correlating to the success and completion of their objectives punctually.

As times change and technology advances, millennials are brought into companies to keep up with the everchanging and updated technology incorporated in company operations. Millennials are the driving force powering the future of the workplace. The discussion of strong, compelling culture within a company can either attract or deter the millennial audience. In this day and age, millennials want to feel like their work matters, like the time they spent accomplishing even the most mundane tasks are furthering the greater good in the world surrounding them. A strong company culture allows them to better recognize the values and goals of the company, drawing the connections to the outward impact it carries into society.

“There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.”
- Richard Branson

The importance of company culture resounds in a business’ success. Company culture weighs tremendously on the productivity, profitability, and professionalism of employees and the company as an ensemble. If the culture is unhealthy or lagging, employees prioritize duties that will meet their own needs, such as moving up the corporate ladder or improving their salary and benefits. This is due to the fact that the workforce does not feel like they or their efforts are valued by management. Appreciating and valuing employee efforts, no matter how big or small they are, in a client project can contribute to the establishment of healthy company culture practices. By focusing efforts on culture, you are establishing a differentiating factor from competitors who foster poor or nonexistent company culture as they focus too much on the success of the business as a whole, not leaving time to motivate or admire the efforts of those within the company. Creating a foundation of positive company culture, one in which employee engagement organically promotes productivity, can make or break the success of your company.

There are many well-known companies who excel in promotion of their company culture. Zappos has become almost as reputable for their company culture as it is for product and customer service. Ten key core values are instilled in each employee as they are hired and trained. Amidst the fast-moving operations of their business, Zappos takes time to budget and plan specifically for team building as well as internal culture promotion. This is done to encourage their employee and assure them of the impact their efforts make on the success of the company. Another well-known example is Google. Not only do they offer employees a fun working environment and substantial benefits to being a part of their team, they prioritize a strong culture of leadership and mentorship to help their employees succeed. By creating a workspace where people can and want to grow, they attract some of the best talent in the industry and express the worth of their efforts. In terms of strong company culture, both Zappos and Google have taken the initiative to hire people with company culture fit in mind.

How will you shift your focus to promote a healthy company culture?

Six CIMple Steps to Success

Have you ever wondered what would be the benefit of hiring CIM Marketing Partners to manage your company’s marketing, messaging and PR? We are proud to say it’s our Results-Driven Marketing Process™ that sets us apart! Each year, we repeat six brand building and value-based steps, which ensure that we understand our clients’ companies and the industries in which they operate, and that their marketing goals make sense. The process not only takes ideas from theory to implementation, it also ensures that action items and tactics make sense for your business today and are feasible and necessary for your business future.

THE STEPS:

Strategic Marketing Summit® – At the beginning of our client relationship, we like to sit for an in-depth and informative meeting to glean information about the state of a company and industry, and understand the path that CIM should take to position a company toward the next plane of marketing success.

The Marketing Gameplan™ – After the Strategic Marketing Summit®, CIM considers the information and creates a recap and gameplan document that describes the identified goals and labels solutions and marketing tools to address each goal. For example, a goal     of increased media coverage for a specific practice area will usually contain solutions including a targeted ad campaign, bylined and quoted articles on the specific area, pointed social media messaging, and other tactics to put a company’s message in front of everyone who would be the most interested.

The Diversified Marketing Portfolio® – After we have a gameplan designed and agreed upon, CIM will research and create the Diversified Marketing Portfolio®, which serves as a blueprint for the entire year. It maps out the entire marketing budget, and includes a month by month schedule of any advertising, events, mailings, sponsorships, etc., that may come up during the year. This way, we have a detailed map throughout the year for easy implementation and targeted advertising based on issue topics and company announcements.

DMP® Implementation and Management – The DMP® remains an ongoing tool throughout the year, and the DMP® is reviewed at all periodic meetings.

The Client Service Maximizer™ – One-on-one training is an important part of the CIM success plan. As much as we believe in our clients, we believe that each member of the team should believe in their company, as well. We work with each member of the company to identify ways for them to market themselves and the company, using such things as social media (specifically LinkedIn), networking, professional memberships, board positions, etc. These action steps are organized, ranked in order of importance and completed with due dates by using The Client Cultivator®, our tool to track progress and assign accountability.

The Annual Strategic Marketing Summit® – Over the years, we have found that the continued used of these steps has resulted in unparalleled success for our clients. That’s why we encourage each client to participate in a yearly Strategic Marketing Summit® to evaluate what worked in the past, determine their present market standing and plan effective and meaningful action steps for the future.

So what makes us different? Our commitment to creating a strategy that works for your company, your industry, your business and your marketing goals. We are so committed to our process that CIM owner, Darcy Neighbors, and Principal, Don Pursell, wrote a book about it, Marketing Fusion: 7 Elements to Ignite Your Growth.

LinkedIn In A Hurry

Silly question; of course, you’re busy. Most of our clients come to us looking for marketing partners that can elevate the visibility of their business, allowing us to take daily marketing tasks off of their plates. We understand exactly how important your time is.

We also know how important personal touches can be to further a personal brand. A personal note or point of contact could be the difference between gaining a new client or losing to a competitor. The best place for those personal touches is social media, specifically LinkedIn for a business audience. While to many, social media can seem daunting and frivolous, it can be quite easy, as well as critical, for your personal marketing strategy.

Consider this: there are 240 million active LinkedIn users across the world, and that number grows every day. Seventy-nine percent of these active users are 35 or older, which given the usual growth of a working individual, these users are most likely mid- to senior-level employees — also known as your direct targets, either for potential clients or an expansion of your network. Still think that social media isn’t for you?

Making social media work for you doesn’t have to be a long or drawn out process. In fact, according to an infographic by BlueWire Media, all you’ll need is five-minutes or less, each day. Here’s how:

If you’re a beginner to LinkedIn, spend one minute accepting pending connection requests. Make sure that you’re connecting with people that you know, people that you want to know, and people that can help to connect you with people that you want to know. LinkedIn can be used in many ways, including promoting events, recruiting new staff, etc., so a diverse and high-level network can help you reach the audience that you need. While you’re accepting the requests, be sure to take about three minutes and send your new connections a message thanking them for the connection. It might be a good time to catch up with an old college friend, find out what a former colleague has been doing or introduce yourself and your business. Finally, in your last minute, request one person. Use the “People that you May Know” suggestions, and turn those people into real connections.

Once you are, or become, a more frequent LinkedIn user, you can move on to using your five minutes by checking out who has viewed your profile. Send them a message and find out why they’ve recently viewed your profile, and if there is any value that you can bring to each other. You never know until you ask! After that, spend a few minutes sharing some content! Have you written a blog or an article lately? Read an interesting article that you think your contacts would enjoy? Add it to your profile. If you’re reading or writing something interesting, people will appreciate your insight and you’ll become a person that they trust.

For the advanced users, share a piece of content and submit it to the LinkedIn Today editors. This will allow your content to reach all of the active LinkedIn users, spreading your name and company throughout the world. This wider platform will allow you to reach users that you would have never connected with or reached through the earlier steps. Finally, spend a few minutes commenting on the status or content of one of your connections and set up a coffee or lunch with a contact that you haven’t seen for a while.

With a little practice and constant attention, LinkedIn has the power to become one of the most important tools in your personal marketing arsenal. Make sure you’re using it wisely! If you need any help with social media or are interested in learning how to make social media work with your marketing plan, contact us.

Constructing Your Content Marketing

As a full service marketing firm, CIM Marketing Partners has built our fair share of corporate websites. A question that always comes up in the planning process is, “Should we add a blog?” The answer? That depends on a few factors. Blogs die every day because of lack of commitment or passion, two integral factors in the success of content marketing. A content marketing strategy is essential to ensure the longevity and success of a blog.

 

First, as with any business and marketing initiative, the first move is to identify your target audience. This affects every part of your blog, from the design, to the content, even the frequency of new posting. Once you know whom you want to speak to, it will be easy to determine what you want to tell them. Be specific in your target, as well. Creating a personal experience for your readers starts when you identify them and speak directly to what they would be interested in. For example, a beauty brand that is targeting women aged 18-35 will probably alienate a large portion of their audience with a review of the best denture creams on the market. However, an employment law attorney who targets content towards human resource professionals whose companies employ more than 50 employees can tweak their content to speak directly to those individuals, thus creating a more personal experience for a reader, who is bound to return.

 

Next, figure out your “why.” Is this blog meant to be educational by enlightening your readers about news and information in your industry? Are you teaching and giving tips and best practices to help your readers? While the point of any marketing tool is to drive business, is this blog going to function as an extended sales arm, showing and explaining new products for purchase? Whatever the reason behind the blog, stick with it and make sure that you’re actually fulfilling the purpose. If you promote your blog as a teaching tool, but people leave with more questions than they came in with, you haven’t met your purpose and are doing a disservice to your readers and your brand.

 

Finally, establish how you’re going to generate the content and when you’re going to share it. Even though blogging and social media seem to be a little more casual than other traditional marketing means, it is still marketing, which means you must be consistent. Content marketing doesn’t have to be time consuming, but you do have to put some time into it. A content calendar can help keep you on track and make sure that your messages are consistent. Building a master calendar a month in advance shows exactly what you are planning on producing, when, and if necessary, who is responsible for the content. Whether you sit down and write the content yourself or purchase content to repurpose, make sure that you are following your schedule and putting the time in to find or produce good content.

 

Remember, content marketing doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming. Laying down the groundwork and sticking to it will help in the end to create and maintain a successful blog. You’ll thank us when you are considered the master in your field.

The Hollywood Remake, the Everyday Company Way

We see it every day: the revamp, refresh, reimagine or relaunch of movies and TV shows from 10, 20 and 30+ years ago. Oftentimes, these new versions are met with protests from a fan base unwilling to allow the update or alteration of the classic worlds and beloved characters the fans have come to know. Similarly, refreshing a corporate brand, while necessary from time to time, may bring resistance and protest from supporters, both internal and external. Using Hollywood as our guide, let’s go through a few tips to ensure a smooth brand revamp.

  1. Ensure that while your look may be different, the product or service remains the same.A common question that comes up after your rebranding may be, “So, what are you doing differently?” Unless you are introducing new products or services, it is important to reassure existing and potential clients that although your look has changed, you remain committed to your original mission and level of service. For example, the remake of “Annie” doesn’t contain a curly, red headed lead character. Although that doesn’t change the story or content, advertising for the upcoming film will be necessary to reassure audiences that they will fall in love all over again.
  2. Don’t reinvent the wheel; stay recognizable. You don’t want to lose your brand awareness.For some, change can be scary, no matter how big or small the change. One of the major complaints heard about the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie is that the turtles look very different from the widely popular versions from the early 1990’s. Make sure that when rebranding, the company name is strong and large, and if you’re changing the company name, make it identifiable. When Consultants in Marketing rebranded in 2009, CIM Marketing Partners was the next logical company name, as CIM was already its well known abbreviation.
  3. Make it good! You never want anyone to say, “You spent money on THAT?” or “Who approved this?”Finally, one thing that is always discussed about remakes in Hollywood is that many are just not good. Sometimes, the freedom to recreate goes too far, and the end result is less than appealing. There is no way to please everyone, but get second and third opinions to make sure that your new brand is attractive, strong, clear and true to your company.If your rebranding is done correctly, you’ll hear more praise than critique, and the new look will catch the eye of new clients, and make the process completely worth it.

Social Media: What Is a Business to Do?

It’s everywhere. Articles, blogs, websites, service providers…all compelling businesses to “do” social media. Your competition is doing it. Maybe you’re doing it.

I want to point out a parallel from yesteryear to what we’ve been experiencing in the last few years. Back in the 1990s, it was common for agencies to field these kinds of comments and questions from clients:

These are the same kinds of questions we’ve been answering during the more recent years, only this time, it’s people questioning their companies’ activity with social media, not their company website.

These questions and the answers surrounding them can be perplexing or literally worrisome to some. In particular, we’ve seen this when meeting with new clients who haven’t been guided by an agency in the social media realm. It can simply be overwhelming to strategize and operationalize an effective social media program for a business without dedicating multiple hours a week, or all the way up to a full-time position or more (yes, even full departments!) for larger companies.

What are some top tips for those seeking to build or create their social media presence?

With professional guidance and operational support, you’ll be able to maximize the benefits of social media for your business with the right mix of time and resource investment.