Uncategorized – Etna Digital

ETNA’s recipe for effective teamwork: Only 3 ingredients lead to success

petar — Thu, 31 Mar 2022 20:22:42 +0000

You have the knowledge and innovative solutions; sometimes, the work of an entire team of experts cannot be measured with yours? But, when you are forced to become a part of a team – innovation turns into nervousness, and effort turns into rolling eyes?

If you have recognized yourself in these situations, the good news is that you are not the only “lone wolf” – teamwork, for many people, is the most hated part of the job. However, the bad news is that you will still have to change something in your approach because today, every profession requires group work and highly developed communication skills.

Photo: pixabay (mohamed_hassan / 5715 image)

How does your favorite pie come to you?

Indeed you have your favorite bakery, where you can always count on the most delicious pies. When you go there, you are served by a worker. You always come out of there smiling and full, looking forward to coming again. Have you ever wondered what all had to precede that purchased and packaged pie? Except for mixing and baking, the workers had to agree on the missing ingredients that the owners needed to procure as soon as possible. Then, there is a precisely determined average amount of pie, pretzels, and muffins per day, which is established by agreement and joint assessment. Worktops also need to be cleaned, right? And that’s where teamwork comes in – an understanding of who will clean, when, and what it means. If, for example, you entered a bakery for the first time, and you are a foreigner who does not know whether pizza or pie is better. There is teamwork between the seller, who is there to recommend what sets the bakery as the best, and the buyer, who needs to speak up about his/her own taste and budget, allergy to ingredients …

Photo: pexels (RODNAE Productions)

Did you count how often “teamwork” is mentioned in the previous paragraph? You better not because you will probably count yourself. Do you now understand why today a man must be both an individual and a team player, whatever his nature may be?

Teamwork and Google Secrets

According to market capitalization, Google is the 4th leading company globally. Let us remind ourselves that even its early beginnings were not on the shoulders of one man but were founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin as students. We admire their success, but would they have come here if they had not expanded their team? We will agree that the company’s growth requires an increase in the number of team members and thus the quality of teamwork.

Photo: pixabay (422737 / 2073 images)

What is Aristotel, and what did it discover about the world?

Aware of the importance of quality teamwork, a few years ago, Google conducted research worth several million dollars and the attention of each of us in any business. This research, or the Aristotle project, followed the work of as many as 180 different teams for 3 years.

The researchers started with the hypothesis that the best teams are members who “like each other a lot”; members who make up a “healthy mix of personality types”; friends who fulfill each other’s professional and private lives. At first glance, the hypothesis is highly logical and is expected to be confirmed. Although, the results completely refuted it…

The Aristotle project concluded that the most essential thing for efficient teamwork is that all team members have an equal chance and an equally distributed time when they can speak and express themselves – from the director to the auxiliary workers. Then, “reading feelings and moods” – based on the tone in which someone talks and non-verbal gestures, other team members should think and assess how a particular team member feels.

So, the most important thing is how team members treat each other. This leads to the “psychological security of team members,” Google concludes.

Photo: pexels (Fox)

And what does ETNA Digital think about teamwork?

We are still not big enough to conduct our own research worth several million dollars. Still, we believe that we are competent to, based on previous experience, propose a recipe that has led us to successful teamwork. Wondering what successful teamwork is for us and why our advice is worth paying attention to?

Successful teamwork is witnessed by our successful and satisfied clients and the work-friendly atmosphere at our meetings. Of course, the concrete results we achieve are essential, but why success if it is a product of frustrations and conflicts, right? As important as it is for clients to be satisfied with our work, it is just as vital that we are the ones who are confident with our own work, as well as with each other’s communication and communication with clients.

Photo: pixabay (geralt / 24093 images)

We also believe that coming to the right solution results from an argumentative conflict. Conflicts can have positive and negative connotations, depending on how they are managed. We believe in a complementary team whose conflicts are not driven by inconveniences and arrogant outwitting but by constructive discussions that lead to a common goal.

Finally, here is our recipe for successful teamwork:

• Everybody has the right to have an opinion about everything

Can a copywriter speak up only when it comes to copying, and a programmer only when it comes to programming? Of course not! In our team, everyone is an expert in certain areas, but that does not mean that he does not have the right to vote for other areas. Maybe a content writer will have a revolutionary idea for advertising without ever assuming that – unless we ask him.

• Let's experiment!

Yes, there are specific strategies and patterns to follow. But no – digital marketing should not consist of dogmas. Creativity is stimulated in our team, and there is no such thing: “I will turn out to be stupid !”. Any idea is welcome because it is experiments that lead to revolution!

• There are no rivals on the same front.

We do not compete with each other but for each other. We exceed our own expectations and share the knowledge we have gained. I came across an exciting course. Take a look! – We strive for just such an atmosphere. How will we fight for the same goals and defy the same problems if we do not primarily view each other as equals? This is precisely what brings us to harmony under pressure and to the satisfaction of our associates.

Note: We strive for constant and continuous improvement, and with the increase in experience, there may be changes in the recipe. But this one is based on everything I’ve experienced so far.

If you’ve come this far with reading, you’re probably aware of the importance of effective teamwork, and – most importantly – you want to improve it. This process is not easy, but it is worth every second invested. Remember that there is no perfection in teamwork – it is a wheel that is constantly turning, and sometimes it is damaged by a few stones or lightning. However, perfection is not interesting at all, is it? Therefore, improving teamwork should not be seen as a punishment but as an adventure.

How should I explain the Marketing Automation?

petar — Sat, 26 Mar 2022 20:51:59 +0000

You are not the only one who is having a problem with this, I was also surprised by the term “automation” a long time ago. I knew what is marketing, but automation made me feel confused a bit.

It could be anything, I thought at first that it was some software doing marketing for me, or that I needed some super extra programming knowledge to set it all up.

I hope I’m not the only one who thought that.

What is marketing automation

It is a process where by using technology we reduce physical effort in the field of marketing!

I don’t think it can be explained more simply.

Don’t run away right now because I revealed the magic formula to you, but read to the end, there are things that will mean something to you, and the text is not too long.

For automation we need some of the automation platforms or tools. We use it in order to manage all the activities related to a marketing campaign from the one exact place.

For example, when it comes to e-mail marketing and the use of software with which we will not lose 300 years by typing each mail separately.

How marketing automation helps teams

1) It saves and frees up their time to focus on developing a marketing strategy, instead of doing technical things.

2) It provides us with a rich, detailed picture of the behavior and profiles of potential customers.

3) It gives us the opportunity to create our custom lead heating scheme. When we form it, everything is done automatically step by step, which means that we can finally rest a little.

4) It allows us to expand the campaign because we will be able to deal with all the information when we organize it more easily.

5) It reduces human error, which means a lot because someone would have to read and review it all three times.

6) It puts leads (potential customers) first.

7) It helps us to determine the precised time units for publishing content.

8) It increases marketing ROI (return on investment).

9) It predicts future investments and steps more accurately than we do.

Automation in the B2B market?

Marketing automation is very suitable for Business to Business!

If we think about it carefully, B2B is known for longer sales cycles, complex decision-making dynamics, multi-stage procurement processes, and so on – so let’s not bother with nonsense.

B2B markets require a high level of focus and relationship management. Product education and awareness of the whole project is also very important. This is an area where it takes a long time to think and analyze before buying – it can take weeks, months or even years.

Yes, for years, because it requires debt from influential decision makers. Such clients change the entire sphere of work and it is worth the effort.

How to keep all the information for so long, how to maintain awareness of everything and remember the conversations, monitor progress?

Just marketing automation!

What about B2C marketing?

Automation here is a little different from B2B.

The goal here is to sell the product to the customer in the shortest possible time and with as little effort as possible. Everything is aimed at keeping the time spent by the sales team to a minimum, or none at all!

This means that we have well automated the whole process!

Business to Customer marketing automation is also about tracking potential customer behavior to decide what we will change in strategy. After some time of following the campaign, changing the details, it becomes perfect.

The consumer campaign (B2C) aims to gain the interest of customers very quickly, and the path to taking their money is short, simple, obvious, but also tempting.

Here is the explanation. This is important for us to understand now.

This does not mean that there is no place for long-term strategic approaches to the customer base, etc.… We are already talking about how to build loyalty and trust in the brand in the shortest possible time – which is of great importance for B2C.

Examples of marketing automation:

Welcome Emails – Let’s say you’ve got a new client and you
need to start building some trust in your relationship right away. While the
client is still excited, he will surely be happy when he sees your e-mail.

With E-mail workflow automation – Emails will be sent automatically, so you won’t spend a lot of time typing, and you won’t have to worry about typing – We’ve made things easier!

Consumer Quizzes – Today’s customers expect you to spend a lot of time with them. Let’s say you have 10,000 or 100,000 customers, you certainly can’t meet with each of them separately, even if it’s a video call – it would be physically impossible again without automation!

One very well-known method for learning about the needs and desires of your users is through quizzes. Their answers to your quiz questions will result in automated customized recommendations that really suit their needs.

Abandoned baskets and re-targeting – Use marketing automation to set up a set of actions to run if people leave a full shopping cart in a web store.

An email will be sent showing the products left by the customer in the basket. If the customer does not respond after a few days, an email is sent again and a discount coupon is added – When would you do all this without software to help us automate it?

Some of the software is AdRoll, or Rejoiner.

As you have had the opportunity to understand Marketing automation can and should be used for every business model.

Such systems in marketing are the key to increasing the income of companies, while ,on the other hand, they do not increase costs for employees.

This would be it for this blog, I hope I have brought this term at least a little closer to you, if you have any questions, I am willing to answer you in the comments.

If you liked the story and want to learn how to increase the number of customers using marketing automation, our team is here to help and advise you about everything.

Here’s how we control you with marketing

petar — Sat, 26 Mar 2022 20:33:28 +0000

When you read the title, did you ask yourself: “Why would some marketers reveal their secrets to me, so later they won’t be able to control me?”

That’s what I was thinking when I got the idea to write this text. But don’t worry, these are just some of the secrets, while we, the main leaders, still keep our secrets private ;), so be careful not to be manipulated again.

To understand all this better, I must first make a short introduction.

As a human population, we generally believe that we are rational and conscious about ourselves (no one and nothing can influence our decision). However, our minds very often react to the world automatically and without our consciousness.

According to Daniel Kahneman's theory, our brain uses two systems of thinking

1) Fast, intuitive and emotional

2) Slow, thoughtful and logical

We consciously apply the first system, because it can be applied effortlessly, unlike system number two. The problem arises when the first system makes us make the wrong decisions, have wrong prejudices or make wrong choices.

These mistakes are called cognitive biases, and now I will list only four examples used by marketing to make consumers buy everything without thinking what is given to them.

So let’s go.

1) Anchoring effect - Excessive reliance on the first information we received

Imagine the situation: You are in a big shopping center, you come to the part where the TVs are and you see one of 9,000 euros … “Dear God, what fool would buy this?”

Next to that TV, there is another that is almost identical, but at a price of 3,000 euros. “Well, it’s not that expensive.”

Not expensive ?? Well, because it reminded you of the one which costs 9000, of course this which costs 3000 euros would seem more affordable

This was a conscious anchoring, but focus now on the following example.

Do you know the places where you have to take a piece of paper with the number to be in the line, even though there are only two people in front of you .. And let’s say you get the number 90, while standing in the line you are constantly thinking about that number 90, actually you are unconsciously anchoring!

And let’s say that you are in the shop of a mobile operator and they offer you a tariff of 50 euros, that tariff will not seem expensive to you, because you are unconsciously tied to the number 90! But that’s not expensive, right?

2) Drag or the withdrawal effect

The key here is that what others do and think affects our way of thinking and acting.

Is any example coming to your mind right now?

Well, the challenges. If you are on TikTok, you must have seen mothers throwing a slice of cheese on their babies’ heads. Every normal human being would call social workers to take away their children, but this is not the case because it is a viral challenge that is supposedly in trending.

What marketing technique is based on this? Well viral marketing. It is used by all portals and social networks where comments, assessments, opinions can be left.

Researches have shown that the rest of the comment section depends on the first comments. If you don’t believe me, try to comment on something with your 5-6 friends first, praise something that would otherwise get a lot of hatred, then just follow how people’s reactions will change.

3) Framing effect

We will understand information as it is presented to us – Although it tells us the same thing, we will understand it differently if it is packaged differently.

This effect is a little harder to understand, but now that I am giving you an example, I think it will be clear to you. (These are examples you can see every day)

Here’s how: We have the same product in two supermarkets. In supermarket number 1, this product is promoted and has a 33% discount.

In supermarket number 2, this product is also promoted but presented as 2 + 1 for free.

Most customers would go to the supermarket number 2. I would probably do the same, and so would you? And why are we doing this? 2 + 1 gratis is the same as a 33% discount on one product. So, forget about gratis, nothing is given for free in marketing.

Moreover, they made us take even 3 products! While in the first market they would take only 1, sadness.

4) Bait effect

Of the 3 options offered, you will choose the one I want to choose so that one of those 3 will be the bait.

To understand this better, we will use the example of The Economist magazine. Magazine readers who wanted to subscribe to the contents of this magazine originally had two options: a one-year subscription to the online version of $ 60, and a one-year subscription to the online and print versions for $ 125.

68% of subscribers chose the first option and 32% the second. Of course, the goal was to get readers to subscribe to another option that would leave them with more money. And what did they do?

They inserted the third option using the “Good, Ugly and Evil” technique.

Wrong choice would be an online subscription of $ 60. Also a wrong choice would be a printed version of $ 125. And a good option and the one that should be chosen is the printed version + the online version for $ 125.

The first option, which previously had 68% of people, now had only 16% of customers. Of course, no one took the second option, while the third was chosen by 84% of people. That’s because option 3 gives the impression that something is being given away and people get the feeling that they didn’t just throw money away.

Do you think we logically moved from 32% to 84% at once? Do
people really need to subscribe to both the print and online versions, so what do they need? Obviously, they didn’t have any needs, but that is the most logical option that was on offer.

People really thought they used logic in their choices.

Now that you have learned about this effect, you have probably been thinking of many and many companies that use this technique. (WordPress, Netflix, HBO ..)

There are countless other techniques used for manipulation in marketing, leave comments, opinions, experiences and if you liked the text, I will write another one without any concern.