To understand why telecoms marketers have turned towards referral or member-get-member programmes, we first need to look at the daunting challenges they face.
On the one hand, the demand for mobile, fixed line and broadband services never ceases to stop growing. Users now expect the highest-possible quality streaming to their fixed and mobile devices, with all the huge capex requirements in fibre networks, 5G etc. that necessitates.
Sometimes clients and prospects ask us whether they really need to give an incentive to a referred friend. As if giving an incentive will attract the wrong type of bargain hunting customer? Or, where you feel your product or service is high quality, then surely the recommendation of the friend should be enough? Particularly, if your service is invite-only, like a private shopping club.
You’ve heard of the boiling frog theory, right? Put a frog in boiling water and it’ll jump right out. But put it in cold water, then slowly bring that water to boil, and Mr. Frog will happily sit there until he’s cooked to death.
It’s completely wrong, of course. Put a frog anywhere and it’ll jump out – that’s just what frogs do – but, as a metaphor, the boiling frog theory’s pretty helpful. Because, as people, we act like boiling frogs all the time: unaware that the circumstances surrounding us are getting more urgent, but failing to do anything about it until it’s too late.
A global pandemic might not sound like the best time for much, let alone assessing your company’s employee engagement. But here’s the thing — understanding what is and isn’t working for your employees is important, and assessing during a time of crisis can actually spur employees to be brutally honest with you. A recent study from Leadership IQ found that fewer than a quarter of employees currently feel they have high resilience, and high resilience employees were 310% more likely to report loving their jobs than employees with low resilience. And as you well know, teams with high resilience pays off big time through things like decreased turnover, increased productivity, greater efficiency, and even improved creativity and customer retention. So it’s crucial to identify teams that are struggling and address the problem directly before it gets worse. Now, in the midst of a global pandemic, is when employees need true leadership, and you can’t figure out what employees need if you’re not communicating with them. And sure, there’s a good chance scores will be lower than before, but current data will also undoubtedly be more truthful and help employees more. And, in the end, investing time and energy in your employees is also investing time and energy in the future of your company. Learn more.
You wouldn’t be surprised to hear Buyapowa evangelizing how word of mouth is the most effective marketing there is because, well, it is. Of course, we’ve spent the last seven years perfecting what we think is the best enterprise referral marketing platform available, so we might be a little biased. But when two of America’s most prestigious universities, Yale and UC Berkeley, publish research on the effectiveness of word of mouth, we think that is worth a few moments of your time.
It’s easy to assume with coronavirus forcing millions to stay home that social media and influencer marketing would be thriving. But, not even influencer marketing is immune to the huge cultural shift caused by the pandemic. In such serious times, creating culturally appropriate sponsored content can be a fine line to walk. Influencers risk looking oblivious if they carry on business-as-usual and insensitive if they try to incorporate the virus into their content. And, given the current economic climate, brands are reluctant to invest in strategies that may not pay off. In response to this change, top-tier influencers are lowering their rates in their quest for work, and micro-influencers are now going up against larger influencers for partnerships, creating competition that’s bad for influencers but good for brands. Meanwhile, some industry insiders are more optimistic: a new report from Influencer Intelligence revealed that spending on cheaper goods and luxuries usually increases during times of economic crisis. And, with online spending and social media use up, there’s no shortage of customers looking for entertainment and escape. So while influencers will have to deal with canceled events and limited content opportunities, the current situation could just spark a new wave of influencer creativity. Read the full article.
